Cruel Oneshots
by national babe
Summary: The one shot comp concerning my CRUEL AU I have been promising for a while now. No clever or intriguing summary here folks.
1. My Hero

So this was it for him, was it? To die alone and suffocated by some, goop thing? His mom would never know. He would never get to say goodbye.

Izuku Midoriya struggled feebly, tears pouring down his face as the sludge villain cooed in his ear. His world was going black, precious air failing to fill his lungs. He struggled once, twice more as his limbs began feeling like solid concrete. With one last flood of tears, he shut his eyes, and gave up hope as he finally lost consciousness.

Funny. He heard one last something, like a slicing sound, and the goop restraining him maybe shouting. Probably just the lack of oxygen. Was that talking?

\- five minutes later -

Izuku, very much not dead, slowly blinked his eyes open, squinting at the clear and sunny sky. Someone was tapping his shoulder, trying to make him respond. Izuku groaned and propped himself up onto his elbows to look at whoever was beside him.

The man was, odd. Izuku didn't describe him as frightening, as that would have been rude and his mother taught him better; but you and I dear reader, may call Akaguro Chizome frightening, for indeed he was. Well muscled, with a multitude of scars and tangled fly-away hair, he did not seem the type to watch your dog for the afternoon. He wore a cold mask that laid flat across his face, proving that he lacked a nose. His eyes were solid white, seemingly having no pupils and few distinguishing qualities for irises.

The man, Akaguro as we know, raised an eyebrow at Izuku's stare. "You good kid? You got into quite the situation there."

Izuku swallowed, throat incredibly dry. "Um, yeah. Did you, uh, save me?" His eyes were bright with curiosity at the prospect of having possibly met a hero.

Chizome shrugged, nonchalant. "Don't make a big deal out of it. What'd he attack you for?"

Letting his head fall to stare at the ground, Izuku thought, swallowing again. "I don't know. I was just exiting the tunnel, then he just came up, and whoom!" He made a pouncing motion with his hands, looking up at Chizome.

"Whoom." The man deadpanned the word, Izuku blushing out of embarrassment and defending himself with a flustered 'What?'. Akaguro sighed, pushing himself to his feet, allowing Izuku to get a full view of the man's true size.

Chizome was quite intimidating. His sleeveless shirt displayed the sheer size of his arms, and he carried his heavy looking backpack as it were nothing. He wore dark combat pants and a dagger rested on his hip, the pummel glinting in the sunlight.

"Well, so long as you're good kid, I need to get going. Hurry home." He strode around Izuku, walking away casually.

Izuku scrambled to his feet frantically. "Wait!" Chizome stopped, politely, but clearly beginning to get annoyed. "Who are you?"

The man contemplated the frightened child before himself a long moment before finally answering. "No one you should ever have to meet again. Now git."

He didn't stop a second time.

It was with a mind filled with thoughts of his strange saviour that Izuku slowly began the trek home. He stopped once to draw a hasty sketch of the man who had never given his name, the childish cartoon looking far more approachable that the real life version. Izuku realized that he knew nothing about the man; no name, codename, quirk, even a guess at his age. With a sigh, Izuku simply scrawled 'My Hero' at the top of the page. A bit sappy, but he didn't exactly have anything else did he?

His attention was snapped back to the present as the sounds of a battle reached his ears. He shrugged, deciding he could at least go in for a look. The pros were already there so it couldn't be anyone that dangerous.

He was wrong. So, so wrong.

It was the same villain as before, who had attacked Izuku, only now in an open and populated street. And the victim? The victim?

Izuku knew of only one person who could cause so much damage while restrained. Who screamed so much. Who could look anyone in the eye and curse their great-grandmother until she personally rose to haunt him.

Only one, and Izuku had known him for years. They grew up together, went to the same school together, even used to be friends.

That horrible sludge villain had captured Katsuki Bakugo. Izuku's 'Kacchan'.

Izuku held his mouth, horrified. Before him, Kacchan screamed and raged, trying to pull free of the goop restraining him. The pros were busy trying to control the damage, and didn't offer a hand to help the captured boy. The crowd stood by, watching in fascination, as if viewing a nature documentary. Then the monster covered Katsuki's mouth, as it had managed to do to Izuku right off of the bat. Katsuki struggled to breathe, looking out into the crowd. Izuku could have sworn that they locked eyes. He saw something in Katsuki's gaze that he had never even imagined could be there.

Pure fear.

Kacchan; impenetrable, stoic, as he was, was absolutely terrified. Izuku had never even seen a hint of worry in his tormentors face, let alone fear.

But here he was, afraid, captured, as Izuku himself had been only minutes before. Izuku didn't know what to do. What COULD he do? He was quirkless, weak. And besides, why should he? Bakugo had made his life a living hell for over ten years. Some strange and altogether unfriendly instinct took hold of Izuku's heart and told him to harden himself to his former friend.

But then the face of the stranger, who had saved Izuku when he knew nothing about the teen, flashed into Izuku's mind. What had Izuku done to warrant his sympathy? To be saved? For all that man knew Izuku could have been a mass murderer, and he rushed out to save the teen anyway.

Was it all that different for Kacchan?

Izuku swallowed his fear, and ran out to his friend, flinging his notebook away.

Little did Izuku know, the same stranger was watching intently.

\- later -

Akaguro was searching for that kid insistently. He was astounded by the reckless bravery the child possessed, and, not for the first time, was disgusted with how the 'heroes' had handled the situation. He felt that kid held potential; potential to understand and support Akaguro's ideals. All he needed was to find the kid-

Ah. He was too late. Someone else found the child first. He eavesdropped their talk, hidden safely behind a house. Having jumped into the middle of the conversation, he tried to glean what they were talking about.

Heroics? It could be useful to have a supporter as a future hero, though quite risky for them both. Now the stranger was talking about the risks of the 'profession', Izuku having fallen silent.

"Heroes have to put their lives on the line for the sake of others. Could one become a hero without a quirk? No. I should think not." Chizome's eyes widened. The boy was, quirkless? And this man had just crushed his dreams. "It's not wrong to dream my boy, but you have to make sure it's realistic." Did the hypocrite not appreciate the extreme bravery and selflessness this boy possessed? If anyone should be worthy to be a hero, Akaguro would cast his vote towards this child. Although, in a twisted way, he had to agree with the man. He had seen how weak Izuku was, how small. But that didn't mean that the kid was hopeless! Just in desparate need of training.

Steps echoed to where Chizome was hiding, signaling the man's retreat. He stepped to the entrance of where he was hiding but stopped as a new sound reached his ears.

Crying. Akaguro stepped around the corner, watching Izuku. The boy was on his knees, clutching the straps of his backpack and essentially sobbing. His ruined notebook was splayed out on the ground, burned and wet. The boy shook with his grief, unable to keep up his guise of happiness and cheerfulness any longer. In truth, Izuku hadn't been actually hopeful or cheery in a long time. Much had changed since he was five.

"Kacchan was right." Izuku whispered through his sobs, unaware that he was watched. "I really am a useless Deku aren't I?" He sniffed, trying to bring the flood of tears to a stop. "I'm worthless. A stupid teen who can't do anything." He fell to the side, wrapping his arms around his face and laying on the pavement.

"You're not worthless."

Izuku's head shot up, his green eyes swollen red wide with shock. It was clear that he recognised Akaguro, though the man didn't speak. Looking thoroughly broken, all his childshish hope lost to the wind, Izuku stared mutely up at his rescurer. Chizome squatted down next to the fragile teen, picking up the discarded notebook and running his fingers through the pages idly.

"I saw the whole attack. What you did, running out to save that kid, it was incredibly brave. I haven't seen such sacrifice in most 'heroes' these days." He landed on a page about Katsuki, recognising the boy instantly. He presented the page to Izuku. "This is the guy you ran out for, isn't he. Why did you do it?"

Izuku swallowed and sat up, staring sadly at the drawing and notes. "You did the same for me, when you didn't even know who I was. I've known Kacchan all my life. It seemed only right. I did always want to be a hero, but at that moment, I wasnt even thinking about that. I just couldn't sit by and watch him die."

Akaguro smiled, pleased with the kid in front of him. So selfless, one who could grow into his ideals. He snapped the notebook shut, offering it back to Izuku. "You're not worthless like they've made you think you are. I think you have the heart of a true hero. One who could make a big difference in the world."

Izuku reached out to take the book, but seemed to lose the will to halfway and his hand dropped back to his feet. "But I can't, can I? You heard what he said. The quirkless can't be heroes. We're too weak"

Chizome's smile faltered, disgusted at what the pro had done to this kid in only a few short sentences. He swallowed his anger however, saving it for a later time. "I'm not talking about what THEY think you can be. Sure, the world may not agree with me, it never has, but I still believe that you COULD change the world. You just need a helping hand along the way; one to guide you and teach you."

Izuku looked up to Akaguro in a new light, realizing that for the first time, someone believed he could be something great; a human being, not mistake Deku. This man saw potential in Izuku, and proudly showed it. Where even his mother lost hope in her son, Akaguro Chizome belived in the weak child he had just met.

"Who are you?" Izuku asked, reverently, almost fearfully.

Chizome smirked. "Let's say a revolutionist. One going against the despicable flow of modern society. Akaguro pushed the note book into Izuku's hands, gracefully standing. He held his hand down for the shocked child to take. "You hold the heart of a hero, yet this society refuses to accept you. I am working towards a world that will crush those who would keep those like you from fulfilling what you are destined to be." He looked gently down at Izuku, an expression rather alien on his face. "I will not force you to become a hero, nor will I force you into walking down such an extremist path as my own. I only offer to teach you; what I believe in, and how to fight for yourself. I will support you whichever path you choose kid, just learn what I feel truly defines a hero."

Izuku stared upwards at this man. They had only met not even a hour ago, and here they were. His whole world had been flipped upside down, shattered and distorted. When everyone he looked up to and longed to become had abandoned him, Akaguro came to support him. He gave Izuku new hope when his dreams were shattered. Something, perhaps in the way Chizome addressed himself as a revolutionist or in his mystery, seemed off to Izuku. Could he trust this man? What if Izuku found out the truth and became appalled with his mentor?

But, then again, did he really care anymore? Even if this man was a monster, he was a monster who saw potential in Izuku.

Slowly, tentatively, Izuku lifted his hand and slid in into his new master's. Akaguro firmly wrapped his own large and calloused hand around Izuku's thin and frail one. Pulling the child to his feet, he clapped his free hand onto his student's shoulder, jostling the child. Izuku's breath came out shakily as he gave a weak smile and nodded.

"I will do it. I'll be your student."

Akaguro broke in the widest grin hed had in a long time. He threw his arm around Izuku's feeble shoulders. "C'mon. Let's get you home kid."

A/N

Hello one again my wonderful dears! Sooooo, Firstie of the oneshots. Whaddya think? I thought the beginning would be the best place to start, and I'm quite pleased with how this turned out; remember, Chizome isn't totally heartless in my au, so his kindness and support of Izu isn't out of place (he's only looking for someone to teach his views to, not a murder apprentice atm). Izuku knows something is off, but really doesn't care about that, he just wants someone to support him for once. We all know the wonderful relationship they grow to have, and now we actually get to see it grow. Yay!

Do tell me what you guys think, it will make my day loves.

So long lovies!


	2. A New Life

It was a simple enough day in school. The sun shone, birds sang, and everyone tried their best not to mention or speak of 'The Incident'. All in all, rather uneventful and bland. Izuku had been doing his best just to ignore everyone; take notes, listen to teachers, and avoid everyone, Kacchan in particular. The last was easy as Katsuki was suddenly fully disinterested in Izuku's presence, which was a greatly appreciated blessing.

Their teacher had his usual neutral expression as he stood before them, opening the second last class before they left for home. After this, all they had was a scientific/mechanical/tech lab of their choice, then they were free.

"Today is going to be a rather special day for you guys." The class all looked to each other with hopeful expressions. "I've prepared a series of tests and problems concerning higher up classes' material, and you all will take them. Reason why is, if any of you don't make it into UA, we'll know where your strengths and weaknesses lie to help get you started on a new track for life." This was a rather weak way to disguise what the teacher truly felt, and what Izuku agreed with; most of these kids, if not all with the exception of Bakugo, wouldn't make the cut to UA. Their expressions of hope dissolved as they learned that such a thing as pop tests existed. "Not to worry, this isn't graded. This is just a help for me to see where to work with you more as the school year progresses. I'll have the questions up here on the screen -like so-, and you will write down the answers on your own paper -be neat and number for heavens sake-."

And with that, the test began. It flowed smoothly enough, with only a few glitches and more than a couple extra long pauses for difficult or mathmatic problems. Izuku didn't pay much attention to his classmates, and as such didn't realize he was almost always the first to finish. He didn't notice the looks he was getting as he sat there, twirling his pencil and waiting for the next question. Izuku was oblivious, until one classmate jealously muttered, "Sheesh Midoriya, no need to make it look so easy."

"Hmm?" Izuku turned around, looking at the person in question. "What do you mean 'easy'? Is it not for you?" The guy's jaw dropped, but the teacher intervened.

"No talking please. Now next question. What effect did the war of --"

The test lasted only forty-five minutes, and they sat patiently around as their teacher looked through the pages for a moment, glancing at some longer than others. Then he came to complete stop, gazing intently down at the page he'd landed on. Several kids glanced up as they noticed the shuffling stop. Izuku just kept on twirling his pencil. He wanted to go home. He wanted to listen to Master Akaguro again. Master was so good to him, letting him ask so many questions. Yes, training was hard and he was so very unaccustomed to applying himself physically, but learning something new, under such a patient teacher who allowed so many questions was simply -

"Midoriya," His teacher drawled out slowly, making the whole class come to a death like silence.

Izuku looked up, shocked as his near happy stupor left him as quickly as strong winds snatch away loose papers. "Uhm, yes?"

"Have you ever seen this material before?" He looked over the pages, pinpointing Izuku in his stare, who was shaking his head violently. "Never met an upper classman and he talked to you about his studies?" Izuku again denied the fact.

He was getting nervous; called out in class, with everyone staring intently at him, ready to accuse him of some crime or another. Why, WHY couldn't he just have had a normal life? "May I, uh, ask why you are asking, Sir?"

"Because," the teacher flipped the page over to show Izuku's answers, "You got every question correct."

You could have heard a penny drop in that silence. That one sentence seemed to be more damning than any false accusation of cheating. Every eye was turned on Izuku now, even Katsuki had turned his head slightly. He felt like a very tiny mouse among very big and hungry cats. "Huh?" Izuku squeaked, terrified out of his mind.

The teacher chuckled and ran a hand through his own bland blond hair, flipping the page back around so look at it again. "I mean, just look at this! You wrote out your math problems, logic'd your way through science, writing that out as well, and used at least five lines for every question even slightly concerning quirks. History and grammar are average, but still correct." He put down the papers, staring in amused awe at the useless and quirkless student before him. "And you've never been exposed to upperclassmen notes or anything?"

Izuku gulped, scrambling for his voice. "Well, you know how I, uhm, study quirks. I've been on the internet, trying to work out hypotheses, and I've probably been exposed to several of the science questions there; same with math as I try to learn how to work it out myself." Even his voice sounded like a mouse, squeaky and afraid.

A strange smirk slid onto his teachers face. "Tell you what." He bent under the desk, still talking. "I've actually got a test here of the same kind've set up, but for college level stuff. I want you to give it a go. No arguing."

He plopped the test down onto Izuku's desk. The green haired boy gulped, very conscious of everyone's eyes on him, and began his work. He muttered as he worked, trying to fill the judging silence. This test ultimately was harder, stimulating Izuku's brain in a way that he hadn't felt in a long time, but he still managed to accomplish his task in a mere twenty minutes. Tension couldn't decide if it wanted to melt off of Izuku's shoulders or pile more on as the test was handed back to the teacher.

Not quite perfect, but nearly so; with a clear understanding on the basics of all the science questions and an open mind to the correct answers, Izuku finally discovered one thing he was good at. School. What had always been his greatest trial, due to Katsuki, was secretly his greatest strength.

Izuku was in a stupor. He had only been this shocked once, with All Might, and that was a positively negative experience. This, this was something new. He was good at something. And being good at something felt, well, awesome! Izuku was elated, all thoughts of Katsuki pushed from his mind as he reveled in this new and wonderful revelation.

His mind was clouded as he stepped into the workshop with his peers, unnoticing of the strange and curious looks they gave him. Busy contemplating how he could use his apparently big brain; he'd never thought of a career other than heroics before, he didn't know what to do with himself. He sat down at his desk and started his work. He had often used workshop hour as a time of daydreaming and or planning, allowing his mind to freely wander. More recently his mind just filled with static and today was no exception. He worked almost blindly, his hands following a pattern they'd worked on many times before. Izuku moved about as a robot; standing to gather tools, walking right back to his desk, resuming work, standing again not long after.

Soon he was presenting the model car to the workshop instructor, still caught up in his static daze. She inspected it closely, smiling at his work. Izuku shook his head, clearing it if it's fog. "I'm sorry, I missed what you said?"

She grinned wider and rolled her eyes. "I said, another 10/10 lil buddy, and so quickly too!" She stood, positioning the car on a shelf and Izuku realized with a jolt that it was filled with her favorites of his previous work in her class; a miniature and fully functional oil rig, a personally designed tower, a tiny field of solar panels that could generate two watts of electricity in ten minutes (which she often used to charge her phone a little during school), a compressed laptop, and a framed picture of a typed out rant in miniscule font on the possibilities of quirks. Izuku realized that he was essentially her pet student. "It's a pity you're working towards Heroics and not a tech based profession."

"Oh." Izuku's shoulders slowly fell, mention of his old dream putting a damper on his seemingly perfect day. "I think I've given up on heroics. I don't think it's for me anymore." Total silence absorbed the class room, making Izuku blush as he realized that he had just admitted that in front of his whole class.

His teacher softened, looking at him gently. "Oh I'm so sorry. I know how much that dream was to you." She leaned over her desk, smiling encouragingly. "Well, what do you want to do now? I've said it before and I'll say it again; you've got both the hands and brain for tech. I imagine you could get quite far there."

Pulling his mouth into a curve as he thought, Izuku bobbed his head in a so-so fashion. "I could, I was also thinking something concerning science. We took higher grade tests y'know to see where our strengths lie and I did, well, really good in science and math."

She snapped her fingers, eyes sparkling. "I actually have some science labs, and just got some new tech ones too if you wanna try your hand at those?"

And just like that, Izuku was busy again. Instead of static, his mind filled with the rules and instructions of his work, reveling once again in the joy of being extraordinary at something. He took meticulous notes, following each instruction to the letter. Lab after lab passed underneath his hands, his teacher staying with him after everyone else had left to talk the logistics of what he was doing and what his possible future professions could be. It wasn't until they were told that they HAD to leave that Izuku and she packed up and left. She had piled spare labs into a bag and gave it to Izuku to complete in his spare time. Walking together, she was talking about how she could ask her fiance to help him get into any highschool or even college of his choice, as well as perhaps give his some private lessons as a runner up.

They divulged from technology and science there for some relaxing talk about her wedding day. She gushed about her plans; how it was to be in March, she'd already found the perfect dress, there'd be flowers and her fiance, the head of a tech company, was going to make sure they had this extraordinarily grand cake, and their honeymoon was to be two weeks in Hawaii, etc. Izuku jokingly asked about his invitation, expecting a joke in return.

"Oh of course you're coming! I was planning on that all along - you are my little star student!"

Izuku blushed beet red. "Oh - really? I was joking, and besides, I only just today learned that I was your favorite! Granted I've learned a lot about myself recently, but still."

She waved her hand, her manicure chipped from work. "Oh I knew that. I was still planning on asking you, hoping that maybe I could get you to realize your potential in my work area. This is your apartment building yeah? C'mon I wanna talk to your mom about your options. You think she'd like an invite too?"

And so it was. Plans were made that day, and once Izuku had a free moment he hastily explained to Akaguro what all had happened that day. Keeping to his promise, Chizome supported these plans, wishing Izuku the best of luck. He truly was a man of his word. Izuku's plans couldn't go into effect until the end of that week and the boy had never been so excited in years. His life was finally changing, and for the better. He was finally saying goodbye to his abusive relationship with Katsuki, and bright new future waving to Izuku from a new horizon.

That Friday, Izuku wasn't in any of his classes. His classmates, even Katsuki, looked around for even a sign of the green head, but none was to be found until the end of the day. At last, Katsuki cornered Izuku in the hallway.

"Where were you Deku? Not like you to skip school." His hand, pressed into the wall near Izuku's head, was smoldering slightly. Izuku trembled, clearly afraid.

"Um, well, you see-"

"Spit it out nerd! I don't have time for this!"

"Itookteststograduateearly"

There was dead second of silence. "Say that again -- and more slowly this time."

Izuku gulped. "I, uh, might have spent the day, taking tests, to, graduate grade school early." He managed a terrified smile, chuckling uncomfortably. He was expecting Katsuki to get mad, to blow up in Izuku's face, but the other teen simply seemed confused and surprised.

"Why would you do that?"

Izuku blinked. "Why would I? Kacchan, you tell me. You know as well as I do what my entire school career here and before has been like!"

It was Katsuki's turn to blink. "Relatively successful? You've been doing fine haven't you?"

'He doesn't realize!' Izuku was shocked, almost hurt that Kacchan didn't actually understand all that he had put Izuku through for their entire childhoods. Almost hurt; Izuku had been through much greater pain where Katsuki was involved. He gulped, quickly lying to just leave this situation. "Yes, well, that's it. I've done so well, and everything that has happened recently has shown me that I can be doing even better." Izuku stood up straighter, squaring his shoulders. "I'm hoping to get into a college centering on technology and science, and it's looking very likely that I will. It isn't heroics, I won't be competing with you in any way shape or form. I should never cross your path anymore. And, honestly Kacchan? Here's hoping we never have to meet again."

The two stared at each other for a breif moment, before Izuku pushed on the arm that was hoping him prisoner and started walking briskly down the hall. Katsuki yelled after Izuku, demanding the teen to stop walking away, to tell him where Izuku was going. "No Kacchan. I'm going home. Leave me be."

Katsuki didn't accept defeat so easily though and began chasing after Izuku. Somehow, the younger and always more feeble teen, managed to stay out of Bakugo's reach running ahead at full speed. Izuku ducked into an alleyway, quickly and clumsily scaling the wall to the roof, having already started basic parkour with Akaguro. He stopped to catch his breath but quickly moved on, moving a few more rooftops away. He knew Katsuki was waiting at the bottom of the building like a belligerent shark.

The volatile teen paced the sidewalk, waiting for Izuku to come down. He had to admit. He was not prepared to see Izuku climb like that. How much had changed in Izuku that Katsuki didn't even know about? He finally got impatient and started to scale the wall himself. He slipped and nearly fell twice, unaccusomed to brick walls; climbing brick is rather different from rock climbing, and it made Izuku's ability to scale the wall even more shocking. At last Bakugo reached the top, expecting Izuku to be cowering in a corner.

The useless nerd was nowhere to be seen. Izuku was already back on the ground and making quirk work of weaving through alleyways to get to his house. Katsuki did indeed not see Izuku for year, when he and his parents were invited over to the Midoriya household to celebrate Izuku's tech getting chosen to be used at Katsuki's training camp. He could never quite shake an uneasy feeling at the rough way he and Izuku parted that fateful school day. The green haired teen's dissapearance unsettled him and kept him awake many times at night.

They didn't see each other for almost a whole year, and Katsuki had no idea how much Izuku was growing and changing under the guidance of his new master. He had no idea, that soon, Izuku would finally put aside his master's criminal activity, and step fully into the role of being Stain's Apprentice. Katsuki had no idea how much his life was going to change.

A/N

Whoo hooo! Here I am again with another one shot my dears! Just gonna clear something up in that last paragraph, Izuku does already know that Akaguro is Stain, but at this current time he just didn't know what to do with it and so just kept on going with his life.

CadB, took your suggestions into account, glad you're here!

Darcry! Boy I haven't seen you in a while. And yes, I fully deserve that nickname. Not finishing stories is probably my biggest character flaw, and I deserve all the shade you throw at me for that, lol. I am trying tho! I have a very imaginative mind which loves to expand upon ideas so I can get off track really easily. I am also still holding myself to my promise of writing all those reveal ideas you continually threw at me, so those will eventually be here too.

:D Plz don't be mad at me :D

Anywho, das all, my dears. So long my wonderful Lovies.


	3. A Choice

Izuku was absorbed in his notebook, fellow pedestrians passing him by as he walked on autopilot to his master's apartment. Puzzling over a certain matter, he wrote and thought furiously. He didn't bother to pay much attention to where he was walking; people seemed to just naturally avoid him.

The matter he was absorbed in?

A certain, revelation, concerning his beloved Master Akaguro. Where the man's morality truly lay. The choice now proffered to Izuku. Chizome of course still promised to uphold his previous deal with Izuku, that of supporting any decision the boy chose to make, but Izuku now understood what he meant by 'extreamist path'. Izuku wondered, if he had known Akaguro was a month ago, if he would have still taken the offer of apprenticeship.

Probably.

Regardless that Chizome was planning on being a murderer, or possibly already was, the feeling of unconditional care and support was almost addicting for Izuku. And knowing that Akaguro would never push him into what he wanted? Simply confusing. Izuku was finding it harder and harder to argue with Chizome's philosophy too; murder was still hard to swallow and altogether disgusting, and his mentor tactfully avoided that subject where possible, but Izuku couldn't deny that heroes weren't what they all claimed to be. He always thought that corruption was in the back streets and bars of Japan. Knowing that it had seeped into almost every nook and cranny of even the hero system made Izuku feel sick.

Distracted as he was, Izuku and another man bumped into each other; the man's coffee fell to the ground as Izuku's notebook tumbled out of his hands and his pencil stabbed him in the chest. The plastic lid rolled away as the man's coffee spilled out onto the pavement; he muttered an obscenity, reaching in vain for the lost drink. Izuku yelped and mumbled as he fumbled about for the book in mid air and lost his footing. He came to a rather ungraceful meeting with the cement. Clambering to his feet and clutching his notebook, Izuku was now covered with an assortment of dirt, water, and coffee. His palms were scratched and he'd torn his new book. And here came the tears.

Izuku looked up, distraught, to make sure who he had numbed into was ok, even if he himself really rather wasn't.

He did not want to see THOSE eyes. No no. He did not want to see that skeletal frame nor the messy blonde hair.

He had, of course, curse his luck, bumped into none other than All Might himself. That lucky cat charm really was a rip off then.

"Oh." Izuku swallowed, cuddling his notebook to his chest as if that would comfort him. "It's you."

Toshinori started back in surprise. "Oh, young Mid- uh-" "Midoriya." "Midoriya! How, unexpected to meet you here."

"Yep."

They stared blankly at each other. All Might's gaze wandered down to Izuku's notebook and his eyebrow quriked upwards curiously. "Number 14? I remember the book I signed for you was 13."

Tightening his hold around the book, Izuku averted his gaze and swallowed, his throat tight. "Yeah well. The last book was rather trashed, wasn't it, and I've been studying new things." He wanted to end this conversation, get to master Akaguro. Just as he opened his mouth to dismiss himself however, Toshinori perked up and spoke again.

"Oh really? If you don't mind, may I ask what you are studying?"

Izuku did mind. He minded quite a bit, but he didn't want to be rude, and refuse. "I gave up on heroics, which I'm sure you'll be thrilled to hear." All Might, oblivious to the boy's distress, interrupted again.

"Oh really? Good! Pursuing the field of police officer then? Your good spirit is truly hard to quench!"

"No."

Coughing a little blood from surprise, Toshinori looked back to Izuku, who had finally returned his gaze to the weakened pro. His eyes weren't what they had been before. They were cold and empty, hinting at a darker side growing in him; those eyes were distrustful, wary, but most of all annoyed. The dangerous look in his eyes was however, undermined by his white beanie with a flamingo pattern and his messy, curly hair. Izuku sighed roughly. "If someone had said that to me a month ago, before you and I met, he would have been right. However, I guess there's something about your idol, the last person you looked up to who hasn't told you that you can't, telling you that you can't, that tends to crush the spirit."

Toshinori was frozen. There seemed to be a dangerous new charm in the young child's voice, where there had been little to none before for Yagi, and Izuku held All Might's attention captive without any struggle. "I'm going into science and technology. It's something I'm actually good at. I've got a self-defense and philosophy teacher too, and you're making me late for our meeting."

Izuku turned, breaking his gaze and starting to walk away, and Toshinori snapped out of his trance. He wasn't sure why, but something didn't seem to add up here; a teacher who taught both self defense and philosophy. How had this boy changed so much in one month? The older man reached out. Grabbing Izuku's shoulder, he spun the boy around. "Wait, who is this teacher? Are you-"

Izuku's face had changed. His eyes were wide and tears threatened to fall, breath growing rapid. Gasping, Toshinori whipped his hand away as if he were burned as Izuku shook his shoulder free. "Haven't you ruined my life enough already?" Izuku accused, voice bitter and scared. "For the sake of the gods, just, let me go before I start crying and set the crowd against you." With the steely look in his eye and the way his chin was wobbling, Yagi didn't doubt that Izuku would do just that.

He stepped back, raising his hands placatingly. "Alright, I'm sorry for disturbing you my boy."

"I'm not 'your boy'. Now, just, leave me alone. Forget about me. I don't care!" With that final bitter statement, Izuku turned once more and stormed away, leaving behind a shocked All Might and his abandoned mechanical pencil. Unknown to both, this was the first instance of the times changing.

Izuku finally did reach the apartment, slipping through the door quietly. Master Akaguro wasn't in the living/kitchen/dining area, a tale tell hissing explaining that he was taking a shower. Izuku sighed, dragging his feet to the couch and slumped into the cushions; he let out a half hearted greeting as he curled into himself. He stayed there.

All Izuku wanted was just one day where he didn't have to stress and get tangled up in emotions. Was that too much to ask? His sniffled, throat going tight and rough as the tears came; no, he couldn't cry now, not in front of Master again. That man valued strength, not crybaby weakness, and Izuku was sick and tired of being a crybaby.

The bathroom door opened, but Izuku didn't stir.

"What happened kid?" Izuku mumbled a response, still trying to get his emotions under control. Akaguro sighed. "Speak louder kid. I can't make out a single word you just said."

"I met that hero again."

Akaguro stilled, slowly setting his plate of food back down onto the counter. "The one from a month ago? At the incident? What did he want, and who even is he?"

Sighing, Izuku gradually relaxed from his curled up position. Doing so revealed that he was in fact, still covered with dirt, water, and coffee. "We bumped into each other and he tried to start a conversation about how I was doing. As for who he is? I'm not sure you would really believe me; I can barely believe it myself."

Chizome picked his food back up, walked over, and sat next to his pupil. "Try me." (This translates to "I'm your master, do as I say".)

Izuku sat quiet for a moment, blinking slowly. "All Might." He didn't have to look at his master to see the disbelief. "See? Told you you wouldn't believe me."

While Akaguro didn't disbelieve his student, he was finding it hard to truly believe the drastic statement. "I never said I didn't believe you. Now, explain how those two are that same person."

Letting his head fall backwards onto the head rest of the couch, Izuku explained his encounter with The Greatest Hero. The news was shocking to Chizome. He'd met the same man before; always coughing up blood and not communicating much with others, Small Might made for a rather unpleasant companion on the bullet train. Izuku reached the end of his tale, throat tightening up again.

"Why can't they all just leave me alone?" He wrapped his arms around his beanie-d head, curling into himself again. "He ruined my old dream so why-? Why did he have to pry?! I'm fine! I don't need him, I-" a choking sob cut off his tirade, his body jolting. "I'm sorry." He mumbled through his tears.

"What in the world are you sorry for?!" Akaguro reached out, meaning to lay his hand on his student's back, but Izuku seemingly melted off of the couch in his despair.

"For crying again." Izuku sniffed, rubbing his freckled cheeks free of tears as more trailed down. "I know you value strength and all, and, it just- It just seems like half of everything I do around you devolves into my balling my eyes out." Sniffing again, he lowered his head despondently. "I'm not strong like you are."

It was the truth. Izuku had been trying to convince himself that, with practice and hard work, he could become just as strong and formidable as his master, whether or not he was going to join him down that path. His repeated failures and his weak body however, was continually wearing down on his hope.

But then, Chizome's hand was on his shoulder, gently pushing Izuku to face him. There was a gentleness in his eyes you would not have expected from one such as he. "Strength isn't the only thing I value Izuku." The child started. In the short month they had known each other, Akaguro and he usually referred to each other as Master and Kid. Real names had only really been used when one or both of them were being entirely serious. "What I value most of all is being yourself. I don't expect miracles kid. I'm not here to turn you into some heartless, raging monster." Little did he know how much Izuku would rage in only a year's time. "I've seen enough of you to know that you simply just cry naturally. And that's ok. Sure, it can be worked on, but crying isn't a sign of weakness. Backing down is, and despite what you've learned about me, you've never backed out of our promise; you still listen to me, you still train under me. You're not weak."

There was that feeling again, in Izuku's chest. Like some kind of light, shining away the dark depression. How could a man Izuku had known for only a month, hold such an effect over his emotions, to the point where self-doubt and sadness simply couldn't exist when he spoke? The power Akaguro possessed over Izuku was simply pure, unconditional encouragement. That was something Izuku had never really been subject to.

His tears came to a stop. Shifting and pulling his arms up onto his master's knees, Izuku used his bony arms as pillows for his head. Izuku smiled, again at peace.

"There. Feeling better now?" Chizome smiled at his student's nod. "Good." Akaguro tilted his head, a though coming to mind. "Y'know something? You're actually the first person to have ever listen to what I believe, how the hero system is corrupt, and not view me as a madman."

Tilting his own head in turn, Izuku scrunched his eyebrows together. "Really? But, I mean, once you get into it, you really rather make sense."

"Well, I suppose it'd make sense for you to understand," Akaguro elaborated. "Most have gone their whole lives adoring their 'heroes'. They've never been exposed to the ugly side of those same 'heroes' like you have. They don't know that people like you go your whole lives with most cutting you down and few believing you."

Izuku's face turned melancholy, thinking back to what he had already begun to describe as his 'old life'. "It wasn't that few people believed that I could be a hero. No one ever did. Not even Mom."

Now this was a surprise to Akaguro. The kid had to have been exaggerating, for surely at least ONE person had seen what potential the kid held before Chizome had come around.

"I guess that's why you mean so much to me. You were the first. I've never even had anyone, that I can remember, tell me they think I'll do well on a test, let alone say they think I have talent, and they would support whichever path I picked."

Akaguro was touched by those words. He'd had no idea when he offered to Izuku to be his apprentice, just how desolate the boy really was. It seemed cruelly ironic that of all the people to believe in the kid, it was an aspiring villain. He told the kid so, inadvertantly apologizing for the situation. Izuku only smiled and shook his head, cheerful spirit returning.

"I don't mind Master. Honestly, where would I be without you? Besides, listening to your teaching is my favourite thing to do, aside from maybe working in the lab or workshop."

"Alright." Akaguro stood, removing himself from Izuku's affection, a mischievous smile plastered on his face. "For having my teaching not top favourite, time for me to beat you to a pulp and call it training."

Izuku groaned, knowing his master was teasing him about becoming pulp. "Ah, my least favourite thing to do."

Chizome walked away, mirth evident in his voice. "And for that insolent attitude you're getting extra laps!"

Izuku, splayed out on the floor, grinned widely. He thought about how well the two complemented each other. They each held the ability to build the other up, or cut them down, but they would only ever support the other, for destruction would only harm themselves in the process. Mind flitting to the path suggested before himself, Izuku wondered if he could really stand to go to the extreamist, and villainous, level his master was heading down.

"If you don't get your butt in here, we'll be training for another hour!"

But then again, as Izuku jumped to his feet and ran after his teacher, did he really want anything else?

A/N

So, here we are again. Its always such a pleasure. So yeah, Izu's finally accepted the vigilante path. Whoo hooo!

CadB, thanks for the encouragement my dude. And while I'm glad you're enjoying the flashback feel, I'm trying to work on a chapter set in the more present timeline. In particular, right after the tartarus break. I'm a bit stuck on that, but here's hoping it'll come along soon.

That's all I got. So long Lovies!


	4. First Night on the Job

"Hurry up boy!"

Izuku panted heavily, fighting to keep up with his far more agile master. Though he had slowed down for his student, Akaguro was maintaining an easy distance between him and the boy. It was dusk, city lights the only illumination. The dim lighting didn't affect either master or apprentice; it was only from evening to morning that Akaguro took Izuku out for parkour practice, so both were well accustomed to work in the dark.

Izuku put an extra burst of determination and speed in his run, matching Chizome's pace for a few buildings. Then he began to fall behind again. If he actually was serious about this whole vigilante business, he'd have to improve his speed bigtime; he'd definately start with getting something lighter to wear; this heavy protective clothing is a huge drag; perhaps a padded jacket?

He didn't realize that his master had stopped until the man snatched Izuku by the scruff of the neck to keep him from running away. Izuku yelped.

"Sorry!" He whisper shouted. "Lost in thought again!"

Akaguro rose an eyebrow. "About?"

With a gesture to his heavy padding, Izuku stated, "this. It's a bit heavy don't you think? Couldn't I get something lighter?"

"Don't whine. And when you get better at this (and focusing), I'll consider it. For running only though; once I get you into a real fight..." Akaguro trailed off. The boy had only just learned block a punch, and still had yet to land a proper blow on him. The child would need a lot of work before he could truly hold his own in a fight. Akaguro shook his head. "Later. Right now, focus. He's here."

They crouched low to the roof top, watching an average ranked hero perform his nightly patrol; middle age, slightly balding, run-of-the-mill environment manipulation quirk. Nothing special about him at all. Not like that would stop Izuku's ingrained reaction from kicking in.

"Ohhh! That's Compactor! He can manipulate asphalt to do his bidding!" Akaguro cut him a dry look. Izuku blushed. "Sorry. Habit." He turned back to the retreating form of the Pro, mentally cycling through his various hero notes. He'd come across Com quite some time ago, so his notes were in one of his older books and he was running off of memory. "If memory serves, he can only manipulate as much as he weighs; 90 kilograms in body weight, 90 kilograms of asphalt. His favoirite moves are making a double of himself, and surprise trapping his opponents in the street (literally, IN the street.) His range is only about 15 meters in all directions."

"Weakness?"

Izuku was silent for a moment. "None that I can really think of. Asphalt is pretty solid stuff. Your best bet would to get him in a park, cement parking building, or those dingy alleyways you're so fond of. I think he also keeps a small slab of asphalt on him to use in emergencies, so watch out for that."

Akaguro let the boy ramble on. Izuku's naturally caring instinct shone through with every "watch out," "don't let," and "keep him," that tumbled out of the juvenile's mouth. He was an oddly protective criminal; had been trying to hide how often he stepped in to help those he found in need, but Akaguro always saw.

Regardless, Chizome kept mental track of what all he said, then he and Izuku were off again. Rushing off for a bit of last minute training before the kid had to leave for home. Not that Chizome believed the kid would sleep right away. Sleep deprived bags seemed to be imprinted under his eyes now-a-days. He'd have to set some health standards on the boy. He wouldn't have his protege getting himself sick or injured for lack of proper self care. But for tonight, training.

Before long, the sound of wood on wood filled the dilapidated training room. Over three months the boy had made some great progress, even had the beginning of a layer of muscle, but his reflexes still needed work. He had yet to land a proper blow on Chizome. He was just a millisecond too slow.

As such, Akaguro found his student face down on the floor after a stinging blow to the shoulder. Izuku gasped. The child pushed himself onto his knees then leaned backwards to sit as his master crouched before him. The padding the boy loved to complain about had done its work and Izuku was spared of another black and blue bruise for the day.

"You gotta get your reflexes up Kid." Akaguro griped, pulling Izuku to his feet. "It'll serve you no good if you can't even block a blow and keep your own in a fight."

Izuku was panting, nearly doubled over. "I know. I've been ... trying to give my all ... like you tell me ..." His eyes went unfocused, looking behind Akaguro. Before the murderer could reprimand Izuku for the fact that 'trying' and 'doing' are different, he pointed and asked "hey, what's that?"

The oldest trick in the book. Surely the boy didn't think he would ACTUALLY fall for that. He sighed, closing his eyes in exasperation. "Kid, do you really-"

He was silenced by the wooden pole striking his chin. Akaguro stumbled back holding his now bleeding chin, mortified that he really HAD fallen for that. Izuku was grinning. His bright green eyes harnessed a spark steel as he locked gazes with his master. "I knew you wouldn't have looked. I also knew you'd get irritated and you almost always close your eyes and sigh like that when you're irritated." He straightened, beaming proudly. "My big brain is my greatest tool, yeah? Why not use it for fighting? If I can pick apart my opponent before a battle, it makes sense that I can do so during one as well. And why not start with the only person I get to fight right now?"

Akaguro pulled his hand away, poking at his damaged chin; he wouldn't be surprised if it left a scar. He grinned right back. His smile held a far darker glint to it, but Izuku had long since learned to cherish his rare and creepy smiles. "Not bad kid. It's about time too."

Izuku shifted, chuckling and discarding his staff. "I didn't hurt you too badly did I?"

Looking down at his student, Chizome sputtered "well don't feel bad about it! You did great! That's exactly the kind of quick thinking you need in a proper fight, and like you said practice is the perfect place to train that instinct!" He laughed, holding a cloth to his chin. "However, I learn just as well as you do, so don't expect another opportunity like that from me again. Now go keep training while I deal with this."

He left the training room, still chuckling. Looking in the mirror, the gash would certainly leave a nice little scar on the underside of his chin. Perhaps the boy was farther along than he thought. Maybe they'd be using real swords soon. As the rhythmic thump of Izuku chucking around a 20kilo sack echoed through the building, Akaguro decided that the boy would indeed make an excellent someday.

A/N

Well I, dont, actually, have anything to say here aside that in the shots here I'm planning on hopefully getting to Kai soon, and the next chapter of DB will be soon.

So...

So long Lovies.


	5. An Ally

Kai walked, deep in thought, back and forth. This tech, these blueprints, the prototypes, this ... mind ... it was quite tempting. It all could set the Eight Precepts of Death ahead of schedule; a nice distance ahead in fact. Perhaps this genius little mind was the last he needed to break the formula for the child's quirk, setting him kilometers ahead of all competition.

And yet ...

Chisaki's eyes cut to the boy before him. Nothing comes without a price.

"I do hope you don't believe me to be stupid." He said carefully.

"Oh of course not." Stain's Apprentice tilted his head, blinking once. His goggles were removed (and had not yet been replaced,) revealing his still slightly red scars and set of electrical cybernetics at his temples: they pulsed a dark mint-blue. "One of the reasons for this 'business' proposition is your brilliance. We could work well off of each other I believe."

Kai quirked an eyebrow. "Then what are your terms?"

Izuku's voice betrayed that he was smiling behind his mask. "Simple, I only have two. First, I am not your intern, throwaway, or employee. We are nothing short or more than equal partners: you have a need, I fill it with options, you pick what you like, you mass produce, I get what profit I need, you take the rest. You, do not, control me. Somethings I will want to keep to myself."

Overhaul tilted his head, second eyebrow joining the first. This kid was just as daring and stubborn as on television and news. Not bad. "I get majority profit."

"Fair," Izuku shrugged. "It's not like I am paying for college anymore: online is a dream: no stupid humans to deal with in person. Just need funds for parts and rent mostly. Just know I will not let you cheat me of my share."

"And your second?"

Izuku's lighthearted air dissapeared. "The more serious of the two." He made sure to lock onto Kai's gaze. "The child Eri. I want her freedom in exchange for my services."

The temperature in the room dropped several degrees. "What." The child was insane if he thought he could take this golden ticket from him.

"Non negotiable." Kai didn't know this, and Izuku would keep it a secret for as long as possible, but Eri was the main reason Izuku was here. "I know the experiments you perform on her. Ingenious concept, which normally I would by fine with, but it comes at the harm of an innocent child, which I cannot allow." If Kai refuses, Izuku would simply tear his organization apart; he never wanted to see another helpless, guiltless child suffer. He remembered that pain too well. He was only offering the business proposition because it profited him: in the end he could live without it. "Your chase with the quirk erasing bullets is going stagnant. I will help you with the formula readily, (preserved blood samples if you have any on hand would help tremendously,) but not at the cost of her well being."

Shaking, it was clear Kai was having to restrain himself. He wanted nothing more than to lunge forward and destroy this insolent punk for even suggesting this. But he had seen Endeavor and All Might, had heard of Muscular (beheaded on a cliff,) and many more. Muscular had also been in protection of a child. He couldn't afford to fight this infuriating teen. But perhaps if he was fast enough ...

"To finish to take off that glove will seal your fate, Chisaki Sir." Izuku's voice was low, his own hand gravitating towards a knife on his hip. The two froze. "Now, perhaps we can think rationally about this, and avoid unnecessary conflict and bloodshed."

Kai indeed controlled himself, and they did indeed began to talk as rational humans do.

\-- later --

Eri clung to the warm and bony boy. Her face was pressed into his shoulder and neck, the pinpricks from her last draw of blood stinging as her forearm was jostled and rubbed. He had climbed to the rooftops like the creatures she had seen in her books, monkeys if she remembered correctly. Now he was running. This stranger ran really fast.

Running with her. Running away from 'Dad'. He said some deal had been made. His brain must have been running even faster to get her away from that bad man's grasp.

She couldn't belive it.

No more sterilized labs? No more needles? Dark rooms, mean people? Strange food? And she got to keep her beloved teddy bear? She would get to go outside? In the mess? Play?

She lifted her head as the boy who rescued her came to a stop. It was strange to be outside at sunset; she had only ever watched it inside before, and very rarely went out (and then at late morning). The bright colors became even more beautiful from the other side of the window. She felt as though she could reach up and drag a hand through the lazy orange-red clouds. In fact, Eri tried. Blinking and giggling, she reached for the fluffy heavens. Izuku smiled at the sweet sight and pulled his hand from her back, searching for something in a pocket.

"Why are we stopped?"

He smiled at her. His face (free of mask to not be as intimidating) was scarred, but friendly. She liked his freckles. Maybe she would have her own someday. "Quicker way to my home, portals. Made them myself."

"Am I living with you?" Her eyes went wide. He was so nice and so friendly, and already she had done so many wonderful things she had only dreamed of before ...

He winced. "Nnnno. I live a hard life, and care wise, I would be no better than Chisaki. I cannot leave the house much yet I am always busy, and you need a lot of attention and care. It would be a disservice to you." He removed his hand, holding a little blue marble. "Not that I don't like the idea of having a role on your life. I just value your life over my own petty wants." He used big words, but Eri began to tear up. She was valued? Over someone else's own wants? With a start, Izuku knelt and set her on his knee to wipe a away her tears. "Shhhh, no no. It's alright, no need to cry Eri child."

"You're nice." She sniffed and tried to copy his smile. He had such a kind face. "You're doing something good, for me!"

His face broke into a strange but nice smile. He smiled nice too. Everything about him was nice. "You haven't been shown much, if any, true kindness have you? No. You're not so different than I was." Izuku hugged her, squeezing her lightly for comfort and warmth. "Don't worry. I'll make sure you get the best family. Hey," he leaned back and gave her a little nudge, "you wanna send us home? You just throw this little thing onto the ground as hard as you can."

She rolled the marble on her hand. It was pretty and small. Eri brought her hand down and threw the small little thing onto the rooftop. She gasped as a swirling black and purple mass erupted before them; instantly her little arms were back around Izuku's shoulder and neck. Laughing lightly, Izuku replaced his hand on her back and leapt through.

The portal popped out of existence.

Eri blinked hard as Izuku shifted her weight and set her on a table. This room was dimly lit.

"Ah, Master turned off all the lights again." He walked without stumbling once toward the light switch and put the lights at medium power. With the lighting activated Eri looked about to see herself in a lab room. Not the kinds of lab rooms Chisaki would use on her. This one was messy and dark, with no heavy cleaner smell. Despite the half built weaponry and strange devices, Izuku's presence kept her fear at bay. Still, she was uncomfortable, which he noticed. "Don't worry. We're only here so I can tend to your arms and make sure you're in well enough condition for this."

She hummed as he approached with a bandage roll. Peeling off the layers of bandages, Izuku's face darkened: too many needle scars; they reminded him of the multiple hand shaped burn scars he had gotten himself as a child. He shook himself. No need to be dark around such a delicate child. He smiled up at her again, and she smiled back. "You hungry? Thirsty?"

"Thirsty."

Izuku pulled out his phone, sending a quick text to Dabi. Eri's eyes widened to the size of saucers when she saw him. Izu's scars were nothing to his! Her surprise prompted a half smile as he set the cup of juice and a lollipop on the counter beside her. "Hello there."

Her mouth was wide open. "Touya this is Eri, Eri this is my ..." Izuku hesitated on the introduction, before deciding on, "big brother, Touya." He focused on wrapping her arms in his healing bandages, but nonetheless felt Dabi's quick look.

"Hai." She said even more quietly than when she had met Izuku. She gave a little wave to Dabi with her free hand, which he returned.

"My little bro sure is being nice by helping you, isn't he?"

She set down her cup of juice and nodded quickly, voice returning. "Oh yes! Is he nice to you as your brother?"

Touya smiled a much wider and more genuine smile. It seemed he had a new younger brother, and one he sure liked a lot more than his blood brothers. "Izu? He's the best. You should get your own brother if you can."

Her eyes went wide with hope. Her own brother? More than just a father? Could she have a sister and mother too? And friends? "Can I?"

Izuku laughed lightly, giving an easy shrug and turning away with the old bandages. Eri could already feel the tingling of accelerated healing. "It's possible. Maybe you'll adopt your ragtag family as I have. Maybe you'll be adopted into a whole family. I only know you'll be happy and whole as you should be. Even more than me." The bandages were tossed into a disintegrator, the sand being pressed into a solid cube. He continued to work, idly filling a bag with necessities as he talked. "Speaking of families, where's Father?"

She gasped. Izu had a father too?! Could she meet him?

"Right here." The cold and gravelly voice sounded from the doorway, all heads turning to where Akaguro leaned against the frame, watching in mild interest. Eri slowly lowered her cup so as to not stain her dress: he didn't look as intimidating as Touya, but he didn't seem as friendly. His hard white eyes passed on from Eri onto Izuku who smiled an even wider smile. How did he smile at such a stony face? Eri couldn't understand it.

"Hello!" Izuku greeted brightly, standing straighter and turning towards Chizome. "What's up?"

"Nothing. Just checking to make sure you'll be home at a decent time for once." Akaguro's voice and face never changed, remaining the same stoic stone expression and tone, yet through the exasperation there was a casualness alien to Eri. It was a casualness that came from almost two years of fellowship and over one year of deep emotional bonding. A casual form of familial love. Something she had never heard before; the only "love" she knew of was was Kai's cold and careless "affection", that left a bitter taste in the back of the throat.

Izuku turned slightly back to Eri, gesturing reassuringly. "Don't worry. I'll make this as short as possible, should be home before Midnight." He waved a hand towards Akaguro, looking kindly at Eri. "Eri, this is my Father, Chizome."

"Hello." Her voice was much, much smaller. Smaller than Izu and Touya combined.

Akaguro nodded. Once. "Make it fast and safe."

"Yessir." Izuku handed Eri her lollipop, placed her on his back piggyback style, and climbed out of the window, heading towards the teacher's living quarters of UA.

\-- a week later --

Izuku stood amidst the battle field. The few surving members and employees of the Precepts were vanishing quickly to a safe point, portaling away with Izuku's portal marbles. Chronostasis leapt through one, carrying a bleeding Overhaul. The man had gotten clumsy in this battle against the League and Heroic forces, and look where it had gotten him: a hand lost, all the way up to the elbow. Gone in an instant. He was too shocked at the sight of his own blood to even remember that he could heal himself.

Izuku was glad he had set up an emergency base for them, and remembered to install multiple long lasting portal receptors. Not only the Eight were fleeing (who remained, that is,) but many employees under them (scientists, cleaning ladies, nurses, guards, the like) were escaping for their own well being.

Izuku stood straighter, twirling his short sword in one hand. His eye caught how the sleeve of his coat rode up his arm as he moved. He really needed to replace this old thing; his old growthspurts were making him too long and tall for it anymore, and he no doubt looked ridiculous. Like a child trying to wear his old clothes.

"Quire the stalemate here, huh Shigaraki?" His distorted voice rang across the battle field. All stilled. Izuku still carried a sense of undefeatable power from his victory over All Might two months ago, keeping the heroic and lawful forces at bay from fear and the League at a distance out of an odd respect. "Too bad it will end in a failure for you." He could see Dabi and Spinner at the edge of the group sharing a glance. They knew what was coming.

Shigaraki sneered. "What will you do? Kill me? Haven't you already had that chance you coward?"

Izuku chuckled, pulling his fallen hood off of his shoulders and back onto his head: the ski mask was necessary to hide his recognizable curly green hair, but he never liked the look so he kept his hood up or all head gear off whenever possible. "Oh no. I'm afraid you're right and I am a coward. Under the right circumstances of course." This last bit he murmured under his breath. The Heroic forces were getting braver, edging closer. Dabi and Spinner sensed that the time was almost here and were slowly distancing themselves away from the group. "I'm simply lingering to prove that is is a failure for you, and show you how."

Izuku reached into a pocket, pulling out his own marble. Dabi and Spinner discreetly pulled out their own.

The betrayal was at hand.

"Time to leave I think, boys!" Izuku called merrily.

He smashed the marble on the ground, his two traitors doing the same, both heroic and villainous forces rushing forward in the confusion. He caught sight of the League hesitating and turning as Dabi and Spinner dissapeared. Their faces were confused, then surprised, then hurt.

Shigaraki didn't even have time to scream in rage. The Heroes were upon him, and he was left with no choice but to flee. He swore he would find and kill the two traitors for this.

Izuku landed in the sparse but packed base, calmly walking over to where Kai was stretched on a table. The stump of his arm was wrapped in healing bandages. Many others sported these, murmuring at the effectiveness. He leaned over the table, hands spread, and looked down at his partner.

"As I se it," he began, not caring for pleasantries, "you have two options. Heal yourself and regain your hand with your quirk, or let it heal with those bandages and really kick off our partnership by gaining a prosthetic/cybernetic arm even more advanced than my implants instead and effectively lose half your quirk's effectiveness."

Izuku's implants currently consisted of the glowing triangles at his temples, with many more to come that he did now yet know about. They steadied his vision when it got away from him, and he was working on an upgrade to allow him to more quickly break down tricky machinery by being able to see the mechanics inside and install the tech that resided in his old V-Sim glasses, so that he could plan without any visual movements aside from the flickering of his eyes. But that wouldn't be for a while yet. What mattered at that moment was making sure Kai understood his options.

"I already know this." Kai said, narrowing his eyes at Izuku. He did not like the child, but he did not dislike him either. He was just annoying. "I was contemplating my choices when you finished you little power move and finally arrived. Tell me, how sanitary are your prosthetics?"

Izuku grinned, removing his mask. He had an ear splitting grin, and his sparkling white teeth seemed a bit too sinister. "No idea. Never had to design one. Sounds quite exciting."

Izuku was having a great time. First that brilliant formula from Kai's work on little Eri child, now work with prosthetic/cybernetics: he was surprised he wasn't vibrating. Already his mind was piecing together a serviceable contraption, one to appease his partner until he got some more work one on that formula. It could do so more than create simple quirk erasing bullets.

Izuku grinned a wide and eagerly sinister grin at Chisaki.

Yes, this was a very clever alliance. It would benefit him in ways he could barely even imagine.

A/N

So there ya have it. An incredibly profitable partnership between a power hungry gangster and a science driven juvenile. Think of Izuku's part in this as GLaDOS in portal, "I was only in it for the science," but without all the murder. If I ever get the Xover going again (stupid block) you'll get to see how Izu uses the formula, which became the base for the All For One Formula. Apotheosis inspired.

Anyway, just wanted to say that the updates are acting up again, so if you didnt get a notice I added a new chapter to DB. I simply noticed I didn't get a lot of comments and I wanted to make sure that the few who read that who also read this knew about that so that their questions (if they had any) were answered.

Comments!

Guest, yeah that was a little awkward. I had an idea in mind of how to start the next chapter when I wrote that, but that was bad and I deleted it. May change the ending of that chapter but probably naw.

CadB, Naomasa is not quirkless. Just nothing is known about his quirk.

That's it. Now, surprisingly, some progress has been made in Dabi redemption so whoo, still working (not) on DB (trying to get up to writing it), ship comp has started, and next chapter of this will either be Xover or usual oneshot (set a little after this chapter with flashbacks to the good old days.) So long Lovies!


	6. Recollecting the Past

Izuku was in his happy place. His workshop and lab was where miracles happened. If he could think it up, there was a high chance he could create it; now with the formula from the tests on Eri's blood that he had modified, that percentage jumped easily to 99.9%: quite a nice chance. Now his lab was filled with new technology to give him access to the incredibly diverse opportunities of Quirks. Izuku had already begun using underground connections and using Kai for even more opportunities to obtain blood samples. He liked to call his team of blood collectors "the blood suckers." He could never resist a pun. Sometimes he wanted whatever they could get their greedy hands on so he could rummage through them and find what he liked and stored the others. Other times he was in search of extremely specific or rare quirks; he liked to head those searches himself. He had even been considering setting up a fake stand, 'Donate YOUR blood for SCIENCE', but that would bring in too many useless results and would be a waste of time and resources.

Izuku shrugged away the thought, and turned back to his work. He had an idea for a collapsible laboratory to take on the move, and was busily weaving a compact quirk, an enlarging quirk, and an electronic shape shifting quirk so that the inside could expand to whatever he so needed, the outside could shrink to fit in a pocket, and it could shapeshift into a fully functional laptop, tablet, or phone so he could check any on going progress without having to enter. His work was slow, and he was getting a headache.

His stomach helpfully reminded him that he hadn't eaten even a snack in four hours.

Izuku sighed. He pulled off the V-sim goggles and gloves and massaged the bridge of his nose. (He worked with the quirk DNA in visual simulator for the very real possibility of an experiment going horribly wrong and wasting precious samples of carefully extracted DNA; once someone wakes up and realized they're short a couple spoonfuls of blood, they take a lot more care in their security when they sleep, making acquiring more blood exceptionally difficult.)

Izuku reached for a bowl of miniature portal marbles and crushed the tiny orb against his desk, meaning to snatch his favorite bag of chips from the kitchen cupboard. He always felt so sneaky for putting a mini portal receptor in there.

But right now, Izuku froze and stared at the minature swirling mass in sudden thought.

The portal's time limit ran out and it shut with a hiss.

Izuku continued to stare at where it had been.

When had he gotten so comfortable and quick with his portals? When he had first developed them every single one was precious and slightly dangerous. At the very beginning they would suck in anything in their vicinity and spit them out at shocking speeds (more than one pencil had been impaled in the wall up to the eraser as a result.) It took him another month until the portals were stable, and he could safely chuck a dummy through one without it suffering any harm. He didn't go through. Not until training one night, when he and Master had just finished only to be suddenly chased by police; Izuku had thrown one down, watched it open, and held his breath as Akaguro leapt through it without a moment's hesitation. (See chapter 5 of Cruel Irony, to read this.) When they both emerged on the other side undamaged but quite disoriented, the portals were deemed a success. However, they were still troublesome and delicate to make. When Izuku was preparing to fight All Might, he had spent all afternoon, evening, even staying up into the night to make the precious orbs. (Chapter 13, Cruel Fate.)

Now he was flinging them around like candy and using them to sneak himself snacks under Master's nose.

When had this happned? Did it happen simply because he had access to greater tools and could create them more easily? It was true that if he so desired he could mass produce them and begin selling them out to Kai and other underground dealers, but he wasn't sure if multiple users would interfere with the portalling process and therefore kept them close to his chest.

A near disastrous episode when the marbles were first in testing flashed in Izuku's mind. A marble had rolled off of the table and cracked on the floor (they were much more fragile then.) Within an instant a wrench zipped a centimeter away from Izuku's very nose and buried itself into a wooden beam in the wall. The portal then popped and fizzled out of existence without making another murder attempt. Izuku had stood there, panting like a dog. Akaguro had been livid. The marbles were kept much more securely from then on.

Now he kept them in a bowl on his desk. They could easily be spilled, but they wouldn't crack upon impact with the floor at least. But if they had spilled and were crushed by stepping on them ...

He remembered how he had used the portals as a weapon against All Star. Their proximity to multiple other portals released an unbearable sound and a torrent of invisible energy, which had sapped the hero of his energy and power. It might just kill an unsuspecting and unprepared normal and frail human, such as Izuku and Dabi. And heaven forbid if Remy, the adorable little puppy she was, found the bowl, for she had a bad habit of assuming anything small was food. Sure there were a couple steps to the lab (and she had an irrational fear of stairs,) but she would still climb down them regardless, and she could very well find her way to his desk. A beloved dog filled with portal marbles, did encourage happy thoughts.

Izuku wrapped the marbles in aluminum foil and placed them in a drawer.

Even his tools that were designed to help carried the potential to be irresponsibly deadly. Ironic.

However, needs were needs, and Izuku opened another miniature portal, no taller than his water bottle, and reached through.

He did not retrieve his bag of chips, but rather an orange with a sticky note attatched to it that said 'Nice thinking brat'. Izuku sighed, but began to peel the fruit anyway. Food was food after all. He returned to his work, and forgot his temporary worry session entirely.

A/N

So, we've had so many heavy and long chapters in literally everything, it was time for a break. That's why this chapter was so short. Just for sweetness and a bit of Izuku being a semi-responsible worry wart. There's literally nothing else to add here, so so long!


	7. If He had Lived

There was the small whoosh of an opening and closing portal. The calloused man drew in a ragged, hard breath. The wounds from that battle eight years ago left him hunched over, blind, almost crippled and unable to defend himself; his hands shook; his voice rasped and croaked as an old oak swaying in a strong wind; his hair was longer than ever, kept in a ponytail and rarely washed; the black had begun to fade into dismal grey. The man looked closer to eighty than fourty-one.

"I told you I wanted to be alone today Matchstick," Akaguro Chizome warned. Touya, even though he was married and had his own child to raise, often spent time by his old master's side to do his best to care for the crotchety old man. Akaguro did not appreciate this. He already had Spinner and the Woods family running around him.

The one who had entered chuckled lightly. "I think you have me mistaken, Dad."

Akaguro gasped, the sound of sandpaper against rough wood. He made his painful way forward, leaning heavily on a cane that supported him up to his shoulder. He reached forward, feeling for who he knew would be there. Rough fingers met soft skin and scars. A hand with far too long fingers that were just as callused as his own from years of work with blades and tools reached up and held the hand on his face. "Izuku, son." Akaguro smiled, finding the strength to straighten slightly and smile. "Oh Izuku. I didn't expect you to be here." He suddenly frowned. "You're shaking."

Izuku spoke again, and his voice betrayed him; it shook with the emotions he was suppressing. "It's good to be home again Dad." In a rush Izuku leaned forward and hugged Akaguro fully, shaking from head to toe.

The deformed man reacted on reflex, one arm abandoning his cane and wrapping around his son's back while the other cradled the back of his head. "Izuku?" Worry laced his tone. "Izuku what happened? Is your wife alright? And the -"

"She had the baby Dad," Izuku whispered. The simple statement cut through Akaguro's chest as quickly as his own blade had done nearly a decade ago. "Mei gave birth and he's perfect, and whole, and A L I V E. My son -" Izuku's voice broke, and he began to weep in his father's arms.

Akaguro Chizome slowly rubbed Izuku's back, trying to process his son's mutterings.

He was a grandfather. He, Akaguro "Stain" Chizome, was a grandfather.

Behind Izuku, there was a tiny little grunt. Akaguro stiffened at the noise, but Izuku detached himself from the old man's arms and turned to face the noise. "Desperate to meet Grandpa are we? Or can you just hear Daddy having a mental breakdown?"

"You brought the child here? Is - is it well enough for that? Strong enough?"

Izuku returned by his side, offered him his cane, then took Akaguro by the arm and led him to the couch. "Oh yes. He's five days old, actually. They made me wait until today to bring him and I'm afraid that it's all been so busy that I haven't had a moment to come anyway." Izuku helped his father settle onto the couch, then sat down beside him. Carefully, tenderly, he passed a tightly bound bundle into Akaguro's arms. "Dad, meet your grandson, Hiroki Midoriya."

Somewhere, buried deep, deep, DEEP underneath the layers of crust and bitterness, remained the loving spark of being a father; sure, he wasn't Izuku's true father, but he had been the only father figure the boy had ever known, and Izuku was the only thing like a son he had ever known. And now, his son by choice if not by blood had become the father to his own son. Akaguro was now a grandfather. Even though it could be technically said that the robot child was his grandson (and he had slowly begun to respect and understand the level of sentience the creation possessed,) this was his grandson in true flesh and blood.

With a tenderness his hands hadn't known in years, Akaguro reached forward and felt the newborn's face. He felt a soft and chubby face. An astonished laugh escaped his lips. Akaguro mapped out his grandson's face by touch alone, cursing his lack of sight; Izuku, having been subject to more than one bout of "memory mapping", knew what his father was doing and stayed silent, fighting off another wave of emotion. Akaguro smiled. It was pure and happy, filled with a joy he had not felt in years. "He has your wife's face."

"Hmmm. I suppose he does resemble Mei more than me in that aspect."

"And your pointy nose." Akaguro brushed a hand across the infant's scalp, feeling the faint beginning of hair. "And this?"

"It's a mix of my green and her pink. Splotches of either color this way and that." Izuku leaned into his father's side. Akaguro could feel the waves of pure unrestrained joy radiating off of him. "He has the tiniest hands; they can barely fit around by finger. He's honestly kinda fat too, but I've been told that's normal of newborns. His eyes have Mei's crosshair pattern (I won't be surprised if he's copied her quirk down to the 't',) but they're my green. I wish you could see them."

"Yeah. I wish I could too."

Izuku was silent for a long moment, allowing Akaguro to continue to mentally map out Hiroki's face.

"... I wish Mom could have been here to see this. She always said how much she wanted grandchildren someday... Mom would have loved him: and Mei and Fumio too."

Akaguro turned his head and buried his face in Izuku's curly hair. "Your mother would have been just as proud and happy for you as I am, if not even more so. We both know she would have loved and cared for your children until her very end, and I will do the same."

Izuku leaned away. "Really?"

The old man reluctantly handed his grandson back over to Izuku and sighed. "You and I both know I don't have forever; I don't even have a lot of time left. But with what few years I have left, your children will know that they have at least one grandparent who loves them." Izuku began to weep again, leaning forward once more. "Don't cry; you'll get the baby wet with those fountains of yours." Teasing over, Akaguro's voice took a more serious tone to it. "You're raising your children in a good world and you made it that way, even if you did so by less than good means."

Izuku ket out a shaky laugh. "Well, we all have to live with our choices. And I think I can live with this one just fine."

Akaguro gave his son a small shove. "Alright enough sap. Get on back to your fancy pants laboratory home; I'm sure Mei wants the baby back."

Izuku slowly obliged, opening another portal and wearily making his way through with a final goodbye. Akaguro breathed another sigh, a peace washing over him.

The front door opened. "Oh you look far too happy. What did I miss?"

"Your nephew, and I thought I told you I wanted to be alone today, Matchstick."

A/N

Well isn't that precious. I've been wanting to do some "what if" oneshots and this was the first one that came to me. In this Akaguro survived his wounds taken in Cruel Destiny in the massive Hero vs Villain fight. Izuku still became the new Stain (taking over as Akaguro became too crippled to fight,) still finished the cause at age 21, and still left to start a new life with Mei by his side. He originally had a hard time accepting that Izuku had constructed a robot in place of the child that died before birth, but has slowly become more accepting of it.

Welp, that's all I got. So Long Lovies! Expect a new chapter either here or in Redeemed soon!


	8. The First One

Five months. That's how long it took. Five months before Akaguro truly took his first heroic life. Five months of constant training and teaching for Izuku. Five months of slow bonding. Now, he truly could be called Stain and Izuku soon would be his true apprentice.

Sure, it wasn't Akaguro's first life (he had taken plenty as the figure 'Stendal',) but it was the first hero to die by his blade. And one so insignificant too; nothing more than a 'hero' with a desire for attention and a weak quirk. Pathetic. Chizome was glad the man was gone, truly, but ... seeing Izuku's face of blank recognition of the blood on his hands and blade drove a tiny sliver of doubt into his chest.

Izuku blinked once. The air seemed still and heavy. Akaguro didn't speak. They stayed there, staring at each other for a moment, then another.

Swallowing a hard lump, Izuku feebly muttered, "I'll get a tub of soapy water," before turning away.

"Thank you."

Izuku was mostly silent for the rest of the day. He knew what was now expected from him, but the boy wasn't quite sure how to feel. He wanted to prove to his master that all of the hard work and constant training had paid off; he wanted to prove that he wasn't a little kid; he wanted to prove that he belived in what Akaguro taught; he wanted to prove ...

Izuku wanted to prove that he wasn't weak.

Yet deep down he knew taking a life wasn't the way to prove that. Deep down he knew that if he went through with this and took a life, there would be no turning back. Deep down he knew he was a little kid. Deep down (very deep down,) he knew there was no amount of training that could prepare him for this.

He couldn't sleep.

In the darkness, words softly forming as if they might shatter in the stillness, Akaguro spoke. "Yknow how I felt? The first time I took a life?" Izuku rolled over on the spare mattress, unable to summon his voice. "Nothing. Not nothing as in I didn't care: no; I cared very much. It was a nothing similar to a deafening static; like staring at an ocean at dusk and feeling small, as if no one can see you; like you're not even really there." Izuku remained silent. He wished there was light in the bedroom so that he would have been able to see his master's face. "But in that nothingness, my mind was panicking. I had just been a kid at the time, and by no means had meant to do what I had done. It was if my body was forcing me to stay calm. I was running on instinct."

Akaguro fell silent and Izuku began to wonder if he had fallen asleep while talking, if reminiscing old memories had lulled him into unconsciousness. The silence reigned for a moment more.

"Izuku?"

Izuku started, but quickly answered. "Yes?"

"You know how I feel now?"

"When you take a life?"

"Yes." Izuku denied that he knew, waiting for Akaguro to respond. "Nothing, and this nothing is just an empty shell. I should be able to feel remorse, quilt, conviction; but I can't, or I won't. It should be tearing me up inside. So many people already have fallen by my hand... I should be a wreck. But I keep moving; I keep getting stronger; I keep killing." Chizome sat upright, and Izuku could feel his gaze. Even in the dark, Akaguro could always find his student. "This will never stop until the day I die. Izuku ... this is a last chance. You could stop here, determine to be the next greatest name in science or technology or both or whatever, and you know I will never hold it against you. It is your choice to do this, but know that if you do, you will be just like me one day."

Izuku couldn't speak as he felt his master's solid gaze move away from his shoulder. All he could hear was his own breathing and Akaguro's final words of, "that gang that cheated us? We're targeting them this weekend." The unspoken finality of those words drove a cold stake into Izuku's chest. In only a few short days, he would be forced to make one of the hardest decisions of his life.

He still did not sleep. Doubt filled every corner of his mind, circling like a starved predator, waiting to strike.

The week seemed to pass by as quickly as skipping from one line of dialogue to the next. Izuku found himself suiting up. To distract himself from.the choice he would have to make, he critiqued every aspect of his gear.

Vest: too heavy for him (sure he could move and climb, but he wasn't yet as strong as Akaguro and the weight slowed him down.) Pants: bulky, same problem. Boots: actually nothing to critique here (these boots were hardcore.) Small throwing knives: he was slow on drawing them, and feared it may cost him injury. He couldn't yet use the small flash bombs or net traps as he hadn't finished the mildly hazardous prototypes. Akaguro had retained sense, and hadn't yet given Izuku a real knife; knowing the boy's clumsy nature, it was for the best.

As fast as a blink, he was rushing across the rooftops by Akaguro's side. They moved in leaps and bounds, effortless, flowing across the night sky. The cold wind on his face momentarily removed the looming thought of his choice from his mind. He followed his master without question or thought, forging forward across the rooftops.

The hum of motorcycles reached their ears, the two's pace quickening with adrenaline. The group was in sight. One signal from Akaguro was all that it took.

Three motorcycles suddenly sparked, veered, and tumbled as shining spinning blades dug into the works. The other seven riders gasped and skidded to a halt, careening into the side of the streets. Two shadowy figures leapt from the rooftops. Not a soul wasted any time in rushing into combat. Izuku hit, sliced, and dodged, fighting fluidly along side his master.

He tried to fulfill what was expected of him: really. His master had poured so much time and effort into him to get him this far, Izuku didn't want to let him down.

But it was as if his body wouldn't let him; or perhaps these guys were tougher than the damage he could deal. But those knife wounds, those kicks: shouldn't that be lethal? It was more than the average human could take, but the thugs kept getting back up. Akaguro's victims lay lifeless on the ground, slain by simple strokes of his deadly blade.

Not one would fall to Izuku.

There was one last standing member; he had looked to be barely older than Izuku himself, perhaps 18 years old. Fleeing on foot, the boy was a sorry sight to see. Izuku's arm snapped backwards before swinging forward in a full body over the shoulder throw. A small glinting blade buried itself in the coward's back and he fell to the ground in a limp crumple.

Izuku froze.

His world turned white, then black, then white again: back and forth until he felt sick. He barely registered Akaguro coming up behind him and clapping him on the shoulder. "Good throw." Falling on empty ears, the praise echoed in the deathly still street. "C'mon. We need to scatter before the police arrive." Akaguro looked down to Izuku when the boy did not respond. He could recognize the look of nothing that filled his eyes; how many times when Chizome was younger did he see that same look in his own eyes? "Izuku, come on."

The order fell on deaf ears as Izuku took an unconscious step forward: then another. In a daze, the boy walked up to the fallen figure. It was twitching and groaning in pain. Izuku wasn't aware of his own movements or actions as he knelt down by the figure and pulled it into his arms. The dying man groaned louder, then went feebly limp in Izuku's arms. He continued to twitch and drag in shuddering breaths.

"... p-please..." he whispered, trying desperately to be heard. Izuku turned his blank face towards the man. No sound came up as he mouthed 'what?'. "I - my - my brother. I joined to protect him but - if I'm gone -" the man coughed and shuddered in agony, his face twisting in unvoiced pain. Blood began to trickle from the corner of his mouth. Regaining his breath, he continued, "please, make sure he is taken care of." Izuku, wordlessly, expressionlessly, nodded. The dying man in his arms relaxed, face contorting again. "It hurts."

Izuku cradled the dying form closer, soundlessly mouthing 'I know, I know.' His hand drifted towards his side pocket. Seemingly materializing in his fingers, Izuku raised the small throwing knife. Glazed over eyes focused on the blade; they widened in realization, then closed in acceptance. The dying figure smiled.

It was a simple motion; move the blade outwards while applying downward pressure; like cutting open a bun for a deli sandwich, or opening a package.

That one simple, tiny motion felt like so much more.

Izuku froze to the spot.

Akaguro had to pry the boy awake from the corpse. He ran for all he was worth with Izuku tucked safely in his arms. The boy never twitched. He did his best to clean Izuku up, but no responses made his task difficult.

Akaguro left his shell shocked pupil on the spare mattress, stripped of his now soiled and boldly clothes and in a fresh pair of pants. Izuku's and his clothes were in a basket, and Chizome had been in the process of throughougly washing them of the blood and dirt when an all too familiar sound reached his ears: irrational panting and grunts. Snatching a bucket, he reached Izuku just as the boy violently threw up. He vigorously thumped Izuku on the back, prompting the rest of the bile to surface, then cradled the quivering form close to him for one moment. Izuku stared blankly forward as Akaguro gently laid him down on his side. The bucket of sick was removed and replaced with an empty and fresh one, just in case.

Akaguro had been right. Izuku truly felt nothing.

This nothingness he felt was horrible. It left him feeling clammy, empty, and emotionless. It left him without the ability to feel anything else; he didn't feel anything when Akaguro flushed the sick down the toilet; he didn't feel anything when he heard the washer begin to remove the stains from his clothing; he didn't feel anything when Akaguro forcefully made him rinse his mouth out with water; he didn't feel anything when Akaguro laid down in front of him on the spare mattress and wrapped his arms around him; he didn't feel anything as Akaguro began to rub his back to soothe him into sleep.

Izuku didn't feel anything at all.

He woke up several hours into the night. Twitching to gain his bearing in the pitch darkness, he found his master still wrapped around his thin frame. Izuku slowly disentangled himself, gently lifting the arms that surrounded him and removing his head from underneath Akaguro's chin. Finally free, Izuku lay face down on the cold wooden floor. He pushed himself to his hands and knees. He walked to the door, moving by instinct. When he bumped into a counter he continued to move, not even a flinch passing by on his face. The frame for the front door passed by him; he kept moving, turning to the right.

Izuku blinked. He was in the room that had become his lab-in-progress: there was his test table full of small grenades, and there the metal cutter. At the back wall was a stack of empty boxes he needed to remove. How many times now had Akguro gotten onto him about those boxes? Izuku didn't even know. It did not bother him as he slipped behind the wall of boxes. He squeezed himself into the smallest place he could find.

As if he hoped the physical pressure in reality would hold together the cracks inside, Izuku curled into a ball and pressed his hands into his temples. The first tears fell.

What had he done?

How could he have been so blind as to think this was something he could do? That he should do?! It was wrong! He knew it was wrong! And he still went and - and --

What had he done?!

Hadn't he always wanted to be a hero? To save the day? To place the bad guys behind bars and be the kind of man that everyone could look up to and feel hope ignite in their chest? And now look at him: a murderer!

What had happened to that old passion?

What had he done?

But...

He had never intended all this insanity. Master was correct in that the hero system was broken and corrupt.

Yet that did not excuse either of their actions. They were murderers.

What had he done?

Why did nothing ever work out how it should have when it came to him?! He SHOULD have been a hero! He SHOULD have never been bullied and reduced to such a delicate state! He SHOULD HAVE HAD A QUIRK!

All of that should have been true, but it wasn't.

Something finally snapped in Izuku's chest.

He had tried, for fourteen years of his life, to work towards what should have been his. He had tried his best and still the world turned and spat on him. And when he should have been told by his idol that he could be a hero, as that man tells everyone on screen, he hadn't been. Instead, a criminal found him and told him he could be great.

So what if he SHOULD have had all those wonderous things? He was never going to get them, and just because he SHOULD have had them, didn't mean he deserved them, did it?

Izuku clapped his hands over his mouth. He almost couldn't belive the direction that his train of thought was headed to. Killing couldn't be better than saving ... could it?

Couldn't it?

It would mean that he was sided with the one person who would never turn from him. It would mean he would have an even greater tool and purpose against the rotten hero society than even his beloved Master Akaguro. It would mean that he could prepare the way for a future quirkless hero and savior of the people.

There was no way that he would have ever gotten into a hero school, let alone UA, as a quirkless nobody; and even if he had, he would have been a laughing stock: a social experiment: an oddity.

He was done being singled out like that.

And now? Well, with blood on his hands and being allied under a ruthless criminal, there was no hope for a redeeming future for him.

Izuku Midoriya had dug his own grave.

He was prepared to lie in it.

Izuku slowly rose to his feet, hiding a shocked and amazed laugh behind his hands. It was then and there that he decided, once and for all, he would never leave his master's side; and this time, he fully understood the consequences of that choice.

Leaving the shelter of the boxes, Izuku wandered back into the open area and looked out a window; the beginning streaks of daylight were visible. How long had he been in that cove of boxes? Shrugging, Izuku decided it didn't matter either way. He walked to the computer and brought up Google. The face of his first victim soon filled the screen, background checks and searches running wildly.

He had a promise to keep, and a now single child to find.

A/N

Well that got dark and on the wrong side of the moral spectrum quickly.

I feel like I should mention, that even though I repeatedly write morally grey to morally wrong characters and openly show their reasoning as to why they are doing what they are, I never endorse their actions. They are fully in the wrong, even if they may not believe it, (and cruel Izu, even though he is a bit mad, he knows that he is wrong in every aspect (even though he is working for the greater good,).) Personally, I find the logic and reality of antagonists turned the protagonists of stories fascinating as I fully believe this is what could happen in real life. People do bad things and not all of them get punished while still alive (punishment in the eternal afterlife is another matter.)

Just know I ain't a psycho. They're wrong, but they are fascinating.

Why did I go on that tangent even tho I'm pretty shut no one is reading this or will respond to it? One: so it's out there. Two: I got nothing else to write in these A/Ns.

Welp. So long then Lovies.


	9. Xover 1 (NEW)

UA is known for it's strange festivals and festivities. If viewed through a purely academic sense, its Sports Festival is the most popular.

However, there is another festival filled with tournaments; one that typically lasts a whole week during the summer. No one is quite sure how the festival came to be; technology has not yet advanced to such a level as to permit the occasion, nor has any quirk related to it been registered. Time travel was theorized by many.

Regardless of how it has come to be, it is a time honored occasion. The festival is held every three years so that a range of students would have one shot at it. Unlike the sports festival, participation is not mandated so it generally holds fewer contestants. The most common scenario is doubles fighting against each other with the same moves sometimes for hours on end. The repetition and low hype have made it to be a small focus.

This time however was proving to be different. Hype was buzzing for the occasion, with rumors flying East and West. Promises of new and more powerful quirks and technology the people of this world had never dreamed of brought journalists and news reporters banging on UA's doors.

It is, after all, only once every three years two alternate worlds coincide to compete against and with each other.

\-- in a main student hall --

Kids were pressed tightly against each other, crammed into small plastic seats. The hall was buzzing with talk. The class of 1-A had been shuttled close to the middle of the room, which conveniently provided them with the best view of a massive projector screen.

Deku shifted deeper into his chair, vibrating with excitement. He had always loved the Alternate Universe Tournament (AUT), and now he was going to be a part in it! There would have been nothing that could have kept him from entering his name for a place in the festival. To think that he could go one on one with a student from an alternate world simply had him -

"Dang Deku!" Uraraka laughed, ribbing him lightly. "If you shake any harder you'll be a human massage chair!"

Deku froze and blushed a deep red. "S-sorry. I'm just - I'm REALLY PUMPED FOR THIS!"

Bakugo scoffed in the row behind and Uraraka laughed. "I know dork. It's all you've been talking about for a month! I wouldn't be surprised if you've been talking about in your sleep."

"He is," Todoroki softly said. "I caught him sleep walking once a few days ago. He was mumbling about worlds and fights pretty incoherently."

Deku blushed deeper as Bakugo burst out laughing.

Just as Iida was turning around to scold Bakugo for his riotous behavior, a tap screeched through the speakers in the room. Several students yelled at the sound. All attention snapped to the front stage. "Sit down and stop talking." Everyone sat down and shut up. Aizawa, the man at the mic himself, sighed and ruffled a paper in his hand. "I'm not going to go over details you all already know. The AUT festival begins tommorow with the extra training of participants, and the day after the first tournament begins. None of this should be new to you."

Aizawa lowered his paper and looked out at the massive crowd; his gaze lingered on the spot his troublesome class resided. "I'm goining to clarify some things and I want both total attention and total adherence. Due to events and problems our guest world has endured, they had to remove several of their common festivals (including this one,) for many years. That means what is modern times for them is now the future for us; inversely, we are the past to them."

Murmurs rippled through the hall before being promptly overtaken by a chorus of "shhhh"s. Aizawa waited for silence, then continued. "Because of the difference in time, this means that all of you before me are adults, most with families and have children of their own. Some of those children have also made their way into UA's halls and will be participating in the tournaments." Aizawa's gaze sharpened and his voice lowered. "Not one of you will mock or rib someone for becoming a parent in an alternate universe... are we clear?"

The was a unison chorus of "YESSIR". Izuku wondered briefly who had become married and had children in their guest world. Had he? Had his friends? What were the kids like?

"Now, number one thing to remember with this situation," Aizawa forged ahead, "is that what is reality for them may not be our future. Many of you as we know you are completely different in this other reality; they can be stronger, have entirely different quirks, no quirks, different professions, interests, even pasts. This is a futuristic world to us; it has different laws, different standards, different people." He waited to let his point sink in. "I repeat; there will be no mockery or judgement due to two alternate people being totally different, understood?"

"YESSIR!"

"Good." Aiazawa lifted a remote. With a click of a button, the projector screen flickered to life behind him and the lights in the hall dimmed. "We have a small video from them detailing their 16 contestants and the hosts; their numbers are so small due to the events and problems I mentioned earlier. Once the video is over you are dismissed. The group is getting settled in a dormitory as we speak. You are not allowed to bother them; if they want to socialize, let them come to you. I will not stand to have an entire school storming through their rooms and setting up a poor example. Now don't talk and watch; I am only playing this once."

Another round of "shhhh" echoed through the room as the video came to life. One kid yelled "HEY WE NEED POPCORN" only to be hit in the head with a shoe and given detention on the spot. No more interruptions were made.

The video was set to a peppy tune, starting out with an arial view of UA. Deku leaned over and quietly whispered "hey I know that place," with a goofy face in Uraraka's ear. She held in a snort.

The shot progressed fast-forward style down to the ground, showing rows of students. The obvious hero course students stood at the front, support studies and a tiny class Deku didn't recognize on one side of the Hero class, the General Ed class on the other side. Looking at the faces, it was clear to see who might be children of his friends; there were two brunette-blond mixes that screamed Bakugo energy; there was a green-pink hair boy who might have even been his own son; there was an exceptional tall girl with solid silver hair with red and black streaks the he guessed was Todoroki's and Momo's daughter.

The scene changed before he could get a closer look at anyone else, but... had he seen an actual robot as a student?

The camera smash cut to a training session: children throwing throwing punches and kicks left and right, tackling each other, and one even back flipped over a kick and punched her opponent in the face. She had been standing at the very front of the group in the previous shot; she had clearly been trained for many years before she entered UA, with muscles to show for her work; her red-highlighted brown hair was kept in a short undercut style that was just long enough to dangle in front of her eyes. She had been fighting one of the two Deku had guessed was a Bakugo child, another girl; wavy blonde-brown hair also kept short in a side-cut hairstyle, fierce bronze eyes, roundish face, and built like a brick wall.

The scene changed just as the two were recovering to attack again.

The shot was arial again, keeping track with a race; the hero students were running full tilt down a path with tires tied around their waists. The red-brunette and the Bakugo girls were forging ahead of the others, occasionally looking behind and telling encouragements to their fellows. Another girl was far ahead of even the two leading girls, springing in leaps and bounds at incredible speed.

"So those two are the overachievers," Deku breathed; they definitely seemed the best trained out of the class.

The camera focused on a different group: support studies. This was a much smaller group than the hero class, with most silently and studiously going about their work. Then there was the green-pink haired kid in the back corner, surrounded by a mountain of inventions, covered in soot, grinning from ear to ear, and seemingly dancing to no music as he worked. Bakugo child #2 was watching with a blank and unimpressed face.

The video froze on them, text popping up and finally labeling the two. Deku's guesses had been correct. The hyperactive goblin was labeled as "Hiroki Midoriya, support class, first year" with the other as "Akio Bakugo, support class, first year".

The camera smash-cut to one year's Sports Festival. For each of the hero contestants, the camera froze and labeled them.

"Homura Bakugo, second year, Hero Course." Clearly, she was the older sister to Akio and the far more battle ready of the two.

"Molly Blyndeff, first year, Hero Course." She looked like an American transfer, with dark brown skin and curly hair that had puffy star shapes in it. She had dark circles under shiny green eyes.

"Kimiko Henka, second year, Hero Course." She was the strong brown haired girl that had been fighting with Homura. Getting a close up of her face revealed that her ice blue eyes seemed to cut straight through the camera just to challenge you with a single look. An extra slide popped onto the screen, identifying her as the Class President; Iida stiffened and nodded at this.

"Meghumi Todoroki, second year, Hero Course." So Izuku had been right in who her father was. She looked slim, yet also very well built.

"Kyo ..., second year, Hero Course." One side of her body was pitch black with pure white hair, the other the inverse. The black side eye was blue, the white side red. Her hair was long and kept in an intricate braid.

"Hotaru ..., third year, Hero Course." She had bouncy pink hair that sat in curls on her shoulders. She had the body of an runner.

"Kotaro ..., third year, Hero Course." He looked like Hotaru's twin brother. He had the same button nose and curly hair, except his was a deep red color. His blue eyes were darker than his sister's. His look sent a shiver of uneasiness down the waters' spines.

"Gou ..., second year, Hero Course." He, like Homura, was built like a brick wall. His school uniform was sleeveless, showing off massive dark brown arms.

"Nobu ..., second year, Hero Course." The shot of him was messy, as if he had been moving while the picture was taken. Only his dark pink eyes were in focus; there was a definite clock pattern in his irises.

"Ryunosuke ... second year, Hero Course." He seemed disinterested in the fight, bored brown eyes staring off camera.

"Kenta ..., first year, Hero Course." He was a bright eyed young lad, with flat blonde hair and a lizard scale pattern up his neck and down his arms. He seemed to be fighting with a bo staff.

"Sota ..., second year, Hero Course." He was short and thin, with powerful looking legs. He seemed like another runner type.

"Taiki ..., second year, Hero course." He had light brown skin that looked like wood and his hair was a messy green that seemed to be moving with a life of its own.

Deku frowned at the screen. Counting the two support students, this made only fifteen contestants. Who was the -

One last person popped on the screen. Several people gasped.

"Fumio Midoriya, second year, hero advisor class." It was the robot Deku had spotted at the very beginning if the video. His features were barely even humanoid; the head was vaguely shaped as a human's should be, but there was no nose or mouth: only a pair of iridescent cute pixelated eyes that seemed to be floating on the metallic surface. Deku stared at the last name "Midoriya". His future alternate self had a robot for a son in a class called "Hero Advisory". He could feel the stares of his classmates; Deku tried not to look at them and focused on the next slides.

The hosts and teachers who would be coming from the other world the the next focus. There were three heroes, one teacher, one who was learning to be the next teacher, and one who apparently was the mastermind behind the second tournament. Katsuki, Ochako, and Shoto were the three heroes; it struck the class of 1-A odd how they were labeled by their names, and not their hero code names.

The teacher was a peppy man with white hair named Tsukasa. Kota, the same boy Deku had saved and befriended at the training camp, was the one learning to take over the position that Tsukasa held.

The one credited to being the mastermind of the second half of the tournament was Izuku Midoriya himself. He was tall, gangly, with his untameable fluffy hair kept in a clean undercut style and streaked with white. Scars riddled his face. What seemed to be tiny cybernetic panels were placed at his temples; they glowed a faint blue. His body was wrapped in a lab coat that had been modified to be long enough to cover his body without him drowning in the fabric.

There was a deep, wild look in Izuku's eyes. It set Deku on edge. He didn't need to have met his older alternate self to know this man was not to be crossed; he was dangerous.

The screen labeled him as a scientist and a list of accomplishments and awards zoomed past on the screen, too fast to fully read. Deku was seriously beginning to wonder if he and this man were truly alternate versions of each other and not completely different people.

"What the heck Midoriya," Todoroki whispered.

"I don't freaking know!"

The video finally ended on a group shot of the contestants and hosts. As the music cut off on a dramatic note students rose to their feet and began to discuss the video's content. Deku rubbed one arm as he rose; the video was supposed to hype him up as well as give him an idea of what he would be up against; it had only served to make him on edge.

He chatted with his classmates, theorizing about their guests' quirks and trying to forget his uneasy feeling. Uraraka looked at him as he fidgeted for the thousandth time. "Deku? Are you ok? You seem upset."

"I..." Deku chewed on his lip, trying to find the words he wanted as Uraraka, Iida, and Todoroki patiently waited for him to finish. "Did, did you get a funny feeling? Watching that? Seeing your alternate adult self?" They all murmured that they hadn't; it had been strange, but they hadn't been bothered. "And you got nothing weird from... from my alter self?"

Todoroki shrugged. "Well he's definitely something else. He doesn't seem anything like you at all, but I wouldn't say I'm on edge about it."

"Yeah! He seemed fine to me. Wonder how he got those scars though."

Uraraka's musing was cut short by Aizawa approaching the four. "You three," he pointed at Deku, Iida, and Todo, "I need to speak with you privately. Sorry but this doesn't directly affect you currently Uraraka."

She said that it was fine, excused herself, and left to find Tsuyu and the other girls. The three boys followed Aizawa; they exchanged confused glances with each other. Had they done something wrong? What if they were being pulled from the tournament? He led them silently into an abandoned room, closed the door, and cut right to the chase. "I'm not sugar coating this for you. Remember the 'problems and events' I mentioned earlier in the hall?" The boys nodded. "That problem was Stain."

A shot of fear jolted through their bodies. The three did not like to admit it, but Deku, Iida, and Todoroki still had nightmares about that dreaded night in Hosu. They became jumpy when Stain or the city itself was even mentioned.

"Apparantly in this world, he wasn't alone. He had an apprentice, two of the Leauge of Villains members, Dabi and Spinner, and an unknown and un-named rifle marksman on his side. From what little I have been told, the Apprentice was even more of a terror and threat than even Stain."

Todoroki was the first to find his voice. "What happened to the group?"

Aizawa sighed. "I haven't been told much; it is a very sensitive topic. About four years of his 'work' Stain was killed in a massive Hero and police versus Villains battle. Records and opinions are unclear as to why Stain and his group were there in the first place. After his death his Apprentice took the name Stain and pushed their agenda for another three years. Once he was satisfied with the actions taken by government and the people, he vanished."

"You mean he got away?!" Iida lurched forward, pale as a ghost. He had always been the most sensitive to the topic of Stain and this news where Stain's ideals won out and neither he nor his Apprentice came to justice was pushing him over the edge.

"Yes." Aizawa had a blank look in his eyes. "You all are still young. Every fight so far you've fought has resulted with your opponents defeated and captured. You haven't learned yet that these scenarios are far too commonplace; evildoing does not always mean justice in this life. Bad guys get away. They may never pay for their crimes." Aizawa looked at the broken faces of his students. He regretted having to tell them this, but given their prior involvement with Stain he had to discuss it with them. "It's not as though the heroes and police just let them go, but the Apprentice I was told had been a tactical and analytical genius; he evaded them at every turn as if it were a sport to him."

Deku breathed, as if to ask something, but the words evaporated on his tounge. He tried ask any one on the million questions buzzing in his head. Not one came.

Aizawa sighed and leaned back on the desk. "Look, I know how much of a big topic this is with you three. That's why I brought it up. This is an even bigger topic to our guests, and I had to prepare you for it." He looked each of his troublesome kids in the eye, gaze for once devoid of apathy and instead filled with genuine worry. "Promise me, when the topic inevitably comes up, that you'll remain calm about it. Don't pester the children and adults for details or pitch a fit at the honest injustice of the situation. For the students especially, they're growing up with the mindset that this is how they must act to fulfill their role; don't hold any of this against them. Promise me, ok?"

The three were silent for a moment, mulling the topic over in their minds.

Iida sucked a long breath in through his nose, pushed up his glasses, and nailed Aizawa with a determined stare. "As class president, it is my duty to be the example to my fellow students. Though I may not like every detail, it is not my place to judge. I will welcome them as I welcome students from other schools and backgrounds."

Aizawa smiled; it didn't show his teeth, but it showed his pride in Iida's development. He looked to Deku, waiting for his response.

"I'm no class president, but I'm in the same boat aren't I?" He smiled back at Aizawa. "Of course I can't honestly promise you that I won't research this until my brain explodes, but I won't pester anybody about it."

Todoroki sent him a funny look. "I'm not - no. I'm like -" he gestured vaguely between his two friends. "I'm like a happy medium between these two."

Aizawa snorted. "Good enough." He pushed off of the desk. "Come on." He headed for the door, then hesitated. "Well... I probably shouldn't tell you this, but I've already gotten you up to speed somewhat with Stain." He removed his hand from the door and turned back to the three. "Along with hundreds of Pro Heroes losing their licenses and sometimes even being imprisoned, there were many laws passed concerning hero conduct and lives and other things. One of the laws concerns itself with the children of villains; specifcally children of villains who are working to be heroes, but it applies to ones of other professions as well."

Deku blinked. "I never considered that those kids might not want to be like their parents. Especially so drastically." The other two murmured their agreement.

"Apparantly neither had this world. There are several qualifiers and variables, and the child must undergo many truth tests to see if he or she is being honest and has a true desire to help. I'm telling you this as Dabi in our guest world is both married and has a daughter in the hero program, Kimiko."

"Their class president? Amazing." Iida looked even more impressed with her than he had before when he had learned of her status as class pres.

"Yeah. Don't bring this up or really even show that you know. She keeps this on the down-low mostly and will bring it up and discuss it as she sees fit. Understood?"

"Yessir."

"Good. No go on before I decide there's any more probably confidential info I need to share with you."

The three boys left, making quick work back to their dormitory building. As they were reaching the structure, talking forcefully cheerily about lighthearted topics, the green-pink haired Hiroki Midoriya went running full tilt from a clearing behind the buildings and into the spare dormitory for the guests. He was yelling at the top of his lungs. "GUYS YOU WILL NOT BELIVE THIS!!!" He didn't notice Deku, Iida, or Todo, who all were really confused.

"He certainly has your energy Midoriya." Todo ribbed him in the side.

Deku snorted and continued his way to their dorm. "No kidding," he murmured as Hiroki continued shouting loud enough to be heard from the outside of the building; he was screaming something about "the void" and soon other indignant shouts were raised.

Iida paused at the porch, glaring at the commotion. He was about to suggest his going over and insisting that they be quiet when the form of Kimiko Henka passed by the window; she was quite clearly in the middle of calming down her riotous friends. Iida gave a short hum of satisfaction and promptly turned to enter the dorm. "Come now you two! I know you both still have left over homework to complete."

A/N

So an explanation and an apology is in order. For the few who were reading the previous Xover, you get the apology; not only was the writing slow and frustrating, but trying to tie it into the overall story without having to modify major things on both sides was driving me crazy. This is set at the end of the Cruel trilogy, where everything is much more relaxed in terms of what can and cannot happen. For reference; Izuku, Katsuki, Ochako are all around 40, and the kids are anywhere from 14-18 depending on their year in UA.

Also yes, I did not bother myself with family names for all non-important-character children. And yes, I up and stole Molly from the youtube series Epithet Erased. I regret nothing.

Now, we will get to the Cruel kids and their quirks later.

For reference so you can keep them straight;

Cruel world: Izuku, Katsuki, Ochako, Shoto

Original: Deku, Bakugo, Uraraka, Todoroki

I do belive that is all! So Long Lovies!


	10. XOVER 2

It had been a restless night. The kids of class 1-A who were participating in the event were jittery with nerves at the prospect of what would come in the morning. The two groups would be separated. The guest kids would have a mock examination of their skills before they were sent to light training by several of the host teachers; the guest hosts would do the same to the kids they were visiting. Hype was soaring to meet their competitors.

Therefore, it was quite the surprise when someone knocked at the front door.

Iida, more high stung than usual, was the one to zip to the door and answer it. Standing at the door wan none other than Akio, one of the two Bakugo children. His hand, already raised to knock at the door, unfurled to wave at the onlookers; he was wearing gloves that covered his thumb and pinky fingers but that left his ring, middle, and index free. "Hi."

Iida's hand zoomed up to his glasses and he straightened. "Hello! You are Akio, correct?"

"Yyyup. And you're Iida?" Akio waited for the firm response before resuming and jabbing a thumb to the guest dormitory. "Cool. Kimiko sent me over; she's making breakfast for us all and wanted to know if any of you guys who're competing wanna join. Like to get to know each other before the training and festival start."

Iida's glasses shone the way they only did when he got into his 'teacher mood'. "That sounds like a brilliant idea!" He snapped back to his watching classmates. He quickly rattled off the names of his fellow competitors telling them to "hurry up and get dressed. We do not want to keep our fellows waiting!"

Deku, already in his training sweats, walked up to the door. He smiled at Akio, who smiled back warmly. "There's some others out of our class who are participating as well. Iida, if you'll get the 1-B kids I'll get Mirio and Tamaki."

Iida agreed and the three set out for their destinations. "Mirio is still here?" Akio asked. "That's really cool! He's one of my sister's and my favourite heroes. She must be pumped." Despite that he was clearly trying to talk at a normal level, Akio had a very loud voice.

"We sent you a video of our participants just as you sent us one of yours. Did you not watch it?" Iida asked, the three stopping at the intersection where they would part.

"No. I was busy when they were publically showing it to the school, and I was busy up until we left. Then we were unpacking, and I was tired, and Hiroki somehow managed to drag me off for lab work." He gave a laughing sigh, dragging a gloved hand over his face. "I'm lucky I got any sleep at all."

Deku hummed. It was strange to know that a Midoriya and a Bakugo could really get along, what with how bad Kacchan's and his relationship was. "So," he began awkwardly, "you're in Support Studies?"

Akio nodded. "Offically transferred halfway through the year. I was originally in Heroics (thinking it's what Mom and Dad wanted and all,) but..." he looked down at his glove covered hand, a somber note filling his now soft voice, "it wasn't working out." Akio shook himself lightly, looking back at Iida and Deku. "Anyway, we best get going. Breakfast might get cold."

With a final smile, Akio turned and left, leaving a surprised Iida and Deku behind. The two friends looked at each other, shrugged, and also parted ways.

It wasn't long before Deku was knocking at Mirio's and Tamaki's dormitory. A bleary eyed Nejire opened the door, right leg in a firm brace. "Deku!" She beamed a smile at him, the kind you can't help but smile back at. "What're you up to? Here to get Mirio and Tamaki?"

"Yeah! Our guest competitors are hosting breakfast before training so we can get to know each other."

Just as Deku finished his sentence, a blonde blur zoomed into focus behind Nejire. Mirio Togata may have been robbed of his quirk, but it had neither slowed him down in the slightest nor derailed him from his determination to become a hero. His blue eyes were wide and filled with excitement. "Did I hear you correctly? Breakfast?" Deku nodded. He was used by now to the boundless energy Mirio possessed. "Epic!" Miro turned and yelled into the living room, calling for Tamaki. "We'll be over in a moment Midoriya!"

Deku nodded, wished Nejire to get better, and left for the guest dormitory. It was across an empty stretch of grass that had been decorated with a few sparse trees, benches, and a winding pathway. He had heard that there was supposed to be another dormitory in the clearing (which would have resulted in a entirely different pattern of buildings,) but that there was an underground space potentially filled with water there; instead of fixing the ground, they decided to simply relocate the buildings.

Maybe that was what Hiroki had meant last night? When he was screaming something about a void? Maybe these kids had access to the space.

Deku shrugged and picked up his speed, jogging to the guest dormitory. Standing on the porch, their backs to him, were Kendo and Molly. As Deku neared, he picked up on their conversation.

"So Giovanni is paying for your Heroic tuition here in Japan? He must be really determined to have you as a sidekick." Kendo sipped her tea, nodding in admiration.

Molly took a large gulp of her now cold tea as well. "Yeah he is. I honestly owe pretty much my whole future to him. Otherwise I would be working night shift at the toy store every day for the rest of my life. Giovanni- boss, says that I need the best of the best for my heroic studies so I can be the best I can be." She shrugged, but smiled nonetheless. "Sure, I miss seeing friends and family, but I intern under him during the summer so I can see them then during my free time!"

Kendo smiled a warm happy smile. "That is super cool. I'm happy for you." She caught sight of Deku in the corner of her eye and waved, beckoning him over. "Hey! Come on over."

Molly turned and smiled at Deku as he finished his jog over. "Hello!" Locking her legs around the railing, she let herself fall back so that she was hanging upside down. She was so short that it left her eye to eye with Deku. "Nice to meet you! You're Izuku Midoriya right? I'm Molly." Molly held out her hand for an upside down shake.

Deku laughed a little but shook her hand anyway. "Nice to meet you too! You can just call me Deku or Midoriya; most people do."

Molly shrugged, not grasping that Deku literally meant garbage. "Alrighty! You should head inside; I think Homura has been eyeing your share of the bacon."

"It's really good man," Kendo agreed.

Always excited for good food, Deku dashed inside. Despite that it was only nearing six in the morning, the dormitory living room was crowded and bursting with people.

Molly aside, Deku could easily spot each of the other guests. Homura was indeed eyeing his share of the bacon but pretending not to as she kept up a conversation with Iida; Kimiko was slaving over Hiroki's hair, trying to force the untameable bush into a ponytail using a piece of blue ribbon for a holder. Gou was chatting excitedly with Kirishima and Tetsutetsu, probably sharing exercise tips; Meghumi, Fumio, Todoroki, and Shinso were in a corner reading books on beanie bags. Taiki was talking animatedly with Shiozaki, bemoaning the struggles of having plant based quirks; Hotaru, Akio, and Sota were finishing off their bacon and smoothies with Uraraka, and Kaminari. Ryunosuke was standing in a corner, being approached by Kotaro; both looked bored. Kyo and Kenta were swapping back and forth between a overwhelmed looking Monoma.

The only two out of the group were Mineta (who couldn't decide which girl to drool at,) and Bakugo who was sulking on the couch; he hadn't wanted to come, but Iida and the others hadn't stopped pestering him.

Iida was the first to catch sight sight of Deku in the doorway. "Ah! Midoriya! Come over! We have saved you some breakfast!" As he spoke he fished out the plate from between himself and Homura; it was filled with miniature muffins, some bacon, and a small smoothie glass.

His stomach rumbling, Deku trotted over. Already digging into his food, he looked up and said, "you're Homura, right?"

"Yup!" Deku could clearly see the resemblance to Kacchan in her. Her jaw was as sharp as his, and her eyes was the same pointy shape; they were slightly more brown than his red however, just as her hair was more brown and wavy than blonde and spike-y. "You came just in time too. Any longer and I would have stolen your bacon and scrapped the consequences." Her eyes sparked with mischief, making it hard to tell if she was joking or not. Deku laughed, but held the plate closer anyway. It WAS really good bacon. "Hope the smoothie is good; Kimi didnt know what flavor you would want so she just just gave you the other half of Hiroki's flavor; some strawberry lemon I think."

Homura jabbed a thumb over her shoulder, pointing out Kimiko finishing Hiroki's hair; he leaned forward slightly when told to and she quickly tightened the ribbon and tied it in a knot before it could come loose. There was a tense second, as if they were waiting for the ribbon to fail. It held. Kimiko triumphantly smiled through a heavy sigh.

"Is... is it done?" Hiroki asked, green eyes wide.

"Yyyyup! About time too." Kimiko swatted his hand away with a quick "don't touch it." She leaned against the counter and smiled at Deku. "Hello! Glad you could make it. Are Mirio and Tamki getting here soon?"

"They should be." Closely examining her, now that he knew she was Dabi's daughter, Deku could again easily the see the connection. She eyes were the same ice blue, but softer in nature; she had three bumps on the side of her nose (a trait Deku had only noticed Dabi had on accident). Her hair was throwing him off however; Dabi had pitch black hair, but hers was mostly brown with red highlights. It must come from her mother. Shaking himself from his thoughts, Deku held out a hand. "I'm Deku. Or I guess you could call me Midoriya, whatever works."

Kimiko went to shake his hand, already responding with "yeah I know," before she suddenly froze. Hiroki, Homura, and she looked at Deku funny. "You let yourself be called that?"

"Hmm?" Deku blinked, taken aback.

"Dad hates being called that," Hiroki said, looking up at Izuku with wide eyes; his irises were a bright green, just like Deku's, but with specks of gold and a pattern that reminded Deku of a telescope lens. "I remember that one of the kids he used to go to school with once met him again and called him Deku; probably on reflex or something. Dad doesn't get mad easy but..." Hiroki trailed off, looking down.

Homura coughed, and turned away from the now awkward situation. Kimiko wrinkled her brow. "So why do you let others call you that?"

Deku shrugged, poking his mini muffin. "I'm trying to change it. Instead of meaning 'useless' or 'garbage' I'm working to have it mean 'I can do anything'. And I know when my friends call me that it what they mean by it. 'Deku' is the name of a hero." His stomach rumbled and he picked up the mini muffin. "A very hungry hero," he said around a mouthful of food.

Kimiko, slowly, as if deciding the weight of his words, smiled in approval; it wasn't a smile of approval as in an inferior being approved by a superior, but of one comrade respecting another. "Well. It's good to meet you, Deku."

"So... does, uh, not-Uncle-Bakugo mean that when he calls you Deku?" Hiroki tilted his head, still staring at Deku with a wide gaze.

Deku chocked the last of his food down in a hard swallow. "Oh, certainly not. He most certainly hates me."

Homura scowled at Bakugo. She had been watching him, comparing what she had seen both in the video they saw and what she was seeing currently (comparing it to the Katsuki she knew as a father,) and she did not like what she saw one bit. Homura knew that she shouldn't expect as much of him when compared to her father. Her father was a grown man who had suffered a different struggle than what this adolescent was dealing with; Katsuki had suffered and lost time after time; he had dealt with a society that was quickly turning against his position. This Bakugo however... "Hey Iida, didn't you tell him to take his feet off the table earlier?"

Iida sighed. "Yes, but I'm not surprised that he didn't listen."

Homura hummed. Her dad had told her and Akio that this Bakugo might cause trouble and be a general pain. She smirked. "Tell him again."

"I doubt-" Iida began to protest, but Homura was smiling now.

"Nah, just do it. I'll deal with it." She turned to face the counter, so Bakugo wouldn't begin to suspect her plan.

Iida looked at her for a moment, then called across the room. "Bakugo!" He waved his stiff arm. "It is disrespectful to place your feet on other people's furniture!" Bakugo yelled an obscenity back at Iida, and returned to his phone. Iida turned to look at Homura's reaction, but she was already gone.

Bakugo suddenly found his feet being roughly kicked off of the table, Homura's steel-toed boots smacking into the back of his knees. She was towering over him as he sat on the couch, grinning in a predator fashion she had learned from her father. The smell of a challenge hung in the air. "Hey now," her voice, jovial only moments before, was now low and threatening. "The class president is in charge when the teacher is absent. Or did you miss that little fact?"

Bakugo's pupils shrunk to the size of pinpricks; his palms began to steam. "What was that?" He growled in the same tome Homura was using. He rose from the couch to be eye to eye with her, but found that she was ever-so-slightly taller than he. Homura grinned wider at that.

"You heard me."

Deku gulped. He twitched, wanting to intercede, but Kimiko laid a hand on his arm, silently telling him to wait; he in turn laid his had on Iida's arm, to keep the twitchy class president from interfering as well. The whole floor was silent now, watching the interaction.

"You really up for a challenge?" They were nose to nose now, small explosions popping along their fingertips and palms.

Homura bared her teeth. "Are you?" She took no small amount of satisfaction in watching Bakugo stiffen. "We should be free after out mock examinations and training."

"Done." Bakugo spat the word out. A final ring of explosions popped around his wrists and he snapped away from Homura. He plopped back onto the couch; his feet were tucked under and beside him.

By the time Homura turned around, the death glare had vanished from her expression and she was back to her usual rough-housing self. She leaned once again on the counter, skewering a mini muffin with her finger.

"I'm impressed," Kimiko said, smirking. "How'd you know that would work?"

Homura's voice came out muffled around her mouthful of food. "Trick Dad taught me. If someone is being a stubborn pain, deal with them on their level. He actually used his younger self as an example." She swallowed and skewered another muffin. "He told me and Akio that people like him-" she jabbed a thimb over her shoulder, "understand people and respect them through fighting, and not much else. You have to prove that you are ready and willing to fight them and prove you can win for them to listen."

Deku stared wide eyed at Homura; her description of Kacchan was spot on, and he should know better than anyone else. The Katsuki she knew must have been entirely different than the one Deku knew.

Iida hummed in approval, looking at Homura in a new light as she shrugged and continued. "It's not too hard really: for me at least. Dad and Uncle Izu have spent years teaching me how to gauge, understand, and defeat opponents."

"Uncle?" Deku nearly choked on his smoothie.

Homura laughed at his reaction. "Oh, crap I haven't explained! He's not my ACTUAL uncle; Akio and I just spent a ton of time growing up being around him and training under him, and we just sort've adopted each other." She slapped a hand on Kimiko's shoulder, jostling her friend. "Kim spent a bunch of time training and hanging with us too, so Uncle Izu adopted her as well."

Iida raised an eyebrow, adjusting his glasses. "And this is... normal behaviour for him?"

"Yeah," Kimiko shrugged. "He's always been a rather lonely guy. He once..." her voice trailed off as she seemed to catch herself from speaking further. "Maybe I shouldn't talk about that; personal stuff and all."

Hiroki nodded, touching his ponytail. "Yeah. Dad will bring it up if he wants to. He doesn't like going into detail about it."

The three mumbled and nodded. Iida and Deku looked at them and each other, thoroughly confused. Hiroki noticed this and waved his hands, blushing slightly. "Don't - don't worry about it! It's nothing important really."

"Yeah!" Homura threw an arm around Hiroki, grinning evily. "We're suuuuuper close."

The boy stiffened, as if sensing where she was going. "No," he breathed, aghast. "You said you wouldn't!"

Her eyes sparkled in a way that screamed 'I say a lot of things'. "We're absalutely adoring cousins, and have NO mushy feelings for each other at all!" Hiroki began trying to lean out of her grasp. "That would be totally NUTS-"

"FUMIO!" Hiroki yelled across the dormitory floor to his brother, who was still reading a book in the corner. "FUMIO SHE'S BULLYING ME AGAIN!"

Before anyone could raise an objection, the robot calmly said "hey Hom, come check this out."

Homura vanished in a second, materializing at Fumio's side. "What's up?"

He pointed at a paragraph in his book, the cover saying 'Footwork for Adept Combatants'. "I think this could help your mobility in battle; combine it with your quirk and ..." Soon the two were in deep conversation, with Fumio detailing the instructions and Homura testing out the moves.

Hiroki, Kimiko, Deku, Iida, and basically everyone else watched in silence. Kimiko shook her head. "I swear he has magic when it comes to controlling her. Not even her parents... but..." she sent a glance to Hiroki, clearly trying very hard not to be amused at his plight. "You really do have to start toughing out her teasing at some point."

"I knoooowwwww," he moaned hopelessly, his ponytail wiggling in mid-air, "but she promised not to tease me about it today..."

Deku and Iida shared another look, uncomfortable. Kimiko noticed and cringed. "I'm really sorry. I don't mean to exclude others, but our dynamic is so crazy and these two," she gestured to Hir and Hom, "move at the speed of light which makes it very hard to include everyone else."

Iida adjusted his glasses. "It's alright. At least you have some control over their shenanigans; unlike myself with my class."

"I listen to you," Deku said, frowning. "... most times..." Hiroki snorted at the comment and Deku quickly changed topics. "So, if you all hung out a lot as kids, then how is... uh... adult-not-me and adult-not-Kacchan's relationship?"

Hiroki raised his head, frowning as he thought about it. "Not TOO bad? Sometimes they can even pass off as friends. There have been a few occasions where they are at each other's throat, but most of the time they just tolerate each other; plus when we kids were playing together at least one of them was usually off busy with work." Hiroki shrugged. "I've been told it's a lot better than when they were our age. But still, I've never heard of or seen anything REALLY bad..."

"I have." Fumio was suddenly behind the counter, reaching up into a cupboard; he pulled out a bag of tea and began to warm up a fast boiling pot of water. "You obviously won't remember, but, while you were a baby, for about a whole year Dad was the most paranoid I've ever seen him. One day Uncle Bakugo came to visit and..." Fumio shrugged, leaning against the counter as anyone within earshot listened raptly. "I don't really know what started it, but when I came across them I genuinely thought they were about to shed blood. Mom and Aunt Ko-ko had to pull them apart with force." The pot clicked. Fumio began pouring the steaming water into a small teacup.

Hiroki watched open mouthed. "What was it over? (And who is that for?)"

"Molly's cup is empty and I know she likes two cups every morning but she won't get it right now 'cause she's talking," he explained. "As for the argument... from what I heard it was a lot of different things, but centering around THE subject."

Hiroki stiffened at the mention of this alleged subject. Deku threw his arms out in exasperation. "Why the heck is everyone being so darn cryptic about this guy?!"

Fumio, unfazed, turned to lock Deku in his adorably pixelated view. "Because Dad has made many decisions in his life, and these particular ones aren't ours to tell, being very closely guarded family and personal problems and secrets." As he passed around the corner, the robot laid a hand on Deku's shoulder. "Don't worry too much about it. Dad will talk about it if he wants to. Also, they're here."

At his final statement, the door banged open to reveal a MASSIVE adult Katsuki. His head snapped to where Homura stood. "Hi Dad!" She yelled, even though he was a short distance from her.

He pointed to her. "How long did it take you?"

She poked her finger into her round cheek, batting her eyes. "To do what??"

"To challenge that git to a fight," his finger snapped to Bakugo, who was glaring at his adult alternate self furiously.

Homura dropped the innocence act and thought. "I dunno... about ten minutes?"

"HA" Katsuki whipped around, yelling back through the door frame. "HALF'N'HALF YOU OWE ME MONEY!"

Homura's face fell into pure shock. "YOU'RE BETTING ON ME?!"

"Oh no, definately not," Katsuki lied, looking far to pleased with himself. He yanked his hand forward to plop a limp noodle Dr. Izuku Midoriya on the floor after having been dragging him by his ankle the whole distance. Izuku was scribbling away in a notebook and didn't even flinch as Katsuki stomped through the door screaming for Shoto to fork-over his money.

Izuku, still on his back on the floor, waved one hand in the air un-energetically and gave a distracted "hello."

"Hey Dad," Fumio greeted, walking past. He casually strolled through the door to give Molly her tea, greeting Mirio and Tamaki who had been hanging around outside.

Hiroki, still at his seat at the counter and beginning to fish around in his backpack, waved his father down. "Dad! Dad I'm so glad you're here, I need to show you this!" Izuku reluctantly clambered up off of the floor. He was even taller in person and built like a bush branch, long and full of knots. He bent over at a nearly 90 angle to look down at the note book his son had pulled out. "It's for Homura, a surprise. I think she could use these to REALLY help her when she's doing rescue work."

Curious, Deku, Iida, and Kimiko leaned over to look as well. On the opened page was a pair of boots with a strange brace system tracing up the spine and a extending piece that ran from the calf down to underneath the foot where its end was hid amongst a bunch of spring contraptions; the piece reminded Deku of a giraffe's tounge. Written all across the page, leaving no empty space, was a bunch of scientific gobbledygook. Hiroki pointed a pencil, jumping right in without explanation. "She could effectively negate most any fall damage, depending on how much she's carrying. Plus it would also logically improve her natural running speed, making her even faster than she already unnaturally is."

Izuku pulled out a pair of glasses, slipped them on, and looked more closely at his son's work. "What metals and/or alloys are you using? Still A157?"

"Yeah, durable with high damage and stress take before break."

Izuku shook his head. "Good for the boot, but use A2016 for the tounge piece at least and a shock-absorbtion quirk-alloy for the spring frame. Negate all fall damage with any load that way." A pencil of his own materialized in his hand and he scribbled some notes of his own in a tiny corner.

Kimiko facepalmed as the two nerds were absorbed in perfecting the fine details in Hiroki's design. She walked around them and waved for Deku and Iida to follow. "Again, I'm sorry. I think they just broke record on how quickly they devolved into some scientific discussion no one else can follow. Since they clearly aren't going to bother explaining, I will try to briefly sum up.

"I'm going to be very light here, as at least the beginning of this is personal to Uncle Izu. When he was around 14 or so, Izuku discovered he had a talent for mechanics, science, invention, and the like. (Talent is a bit of an underwhelming term to use; he was amazing.) He graduated highschool early, went into college, eventually left and did college online, got featured in the newspaper, and even had his inventions be integrated in the UA summer training camp. However, due to... a very certain event I don't feel I should really mention, Izuku ran away. He was missing for six whole years, during what is being called 'Stain's Revolution' which, technically, had started a year or so prior.

"When Stain's Apprentice... retired, shall we say... the world was unstable. Societal view of heroes had been shaken to the core. There was no pillar to trust in aside from the few remaining heroes who had stood the test, and even then, many people did not and still do not trust them. Then Izuku returned, bringing with him a new science to bring equality and security to the individual; he called it Quirked Science, or QS. He was inspired by the account of Overhaul (though he was repulsed by the measures Overhaul had taken,) how he used a quirk to create quirk erasing bullets. Izuku, through time and effort, created his own version of the formula that could be used with any quirk and that was entirely humane; he, once again inspired by the stories of villains, named it the All-for-One formula. (I only know this because he's personally told me. He hasn't told anyone outside of his company that he is even using quirks, though people have put it together.)

"He spent years hidden away from society refining his formula, hiding it from others, ensuring only he knew of it, and building revolutionary technology with the average person's quirk. He's told me that he purposely waited for the Apprentice's retirement and the end of his cause before returning to society and ensuring his success. With such little faith in heroes and few heroes to have faith in, the national government was desperate for any form of support and protection for the people. They were funding other organizations, but Izuku blew them out of the water. With the right quirks he could build anything the government could need. As you might imagine, Uncle Izu became quite influential; he realized this and used it. He could have easily supplied the government with only military weapons capable of putting Japan as the top world power; he could have turned Japan into a militaristic dictatorship. He could have easily started a lot of horrible endings.

"Instead however, Izuku made an agreement. For at least the beginning of his company, the government would fund him until he could get on his feet and support himself. For that single year (which was all he needed,) Izuku built what they wanted, but gave them that in minimalistic terms, to avoid said dictatorship. After that, he began expanding and doing as he pleased.

"Now he's an untouchable world-wide company that can do anything. What's more, due to the sheer nature of his formula, he can produce en-masse, making everything ridiculously cheap. What thirty years ago would have been a outlandish fantasy is now commonplace. Those A157 and A2016 things they were talking about are different quirk infused alloys if I'm not mistaken, and that not even scratching the surface of what he's created or is capable of creating."

Kimiko looked not at all concerned with the information dump she just pulled on them. She shrugged in a 'no biggie' fashion. Many people had stopped by to listen in on her story, and their jaws were just as firmly on the ground as Deku's and Iida's. Deku himself was astounded by what he had just heard. They all just stared at her until she started to become uncomfortable.

It was at this moment that Katsuki re-entered, dragging Shoto in by a loose choke-hold and trailed by Tsukasa, Kota, Aizawa, Toshinori, Vlad King, and the students who had been hanging around outside (which included Mirio and Tamaki). Katsuki frowned down at the flabbergasted group of teens. "What in the world are you all doing?"

Kimiko shrugged and gestured to Izuku and Hiroki, who had looked up finally, still hunched over the notebook. "They weren't explaining anything nor were they going to so I gave a brief sum-up."

Katsuki, ever the most tactical person in the room, looked to Izuku and screamed "NERD" very, very loudly.

Izuku, ever graceful and refined, stuck out his tounge with an even uglier face than what was normal.

You could see Aizawa's lifespan shortening.

Tsukasa beamed and shook his head. "Oh to be their age again." He clapped his hands loudly, bringing attention to himself. "Is everybody here? Ready?" Kids stood up and gave light cheers and shouts, rolling arms to loosen muscles. "Wonderful! Pack up and get ready! Only some of us can ride in cars; the rest will have to jog the distance to UA."

Fumio lightly tapped Tsukasa. "May I ride? I'm not really the runner type."

"Of course!" The teacher roughly rubbed the robot child's head, as one world rub their hand in someone's hair.

Hiroki and Akio stood as well, clearly meaning to also ask to ride in a car, but Izuku hoisted them up by the scruff of their necks. "Ohhhh no you don't. You two need some light exercise to warm up for when I go at you."

The boys groaned. "Its like a 10 minute run to school though," Hiroki whined.

Izuku, unimpressed, raised an eyebrow. "And? I've run across rooftops for hours on end. A 10 minute jog is nothing."

Hiroki slumped, defeated. Trying not to snicker at her friend's predicament, Kimiko clambered on top of the counter and called attention. "Alright, we are going to do this in an ORDERLY fashion today guys. Which means," she pointed a finger at Hotaru, "no leaving the group behind." The girl in question blushed, muttering "but its funnnn," under her breath. Kimiko pointed a finger at Homura next. "It also means no plowing people over to have 'first place'."

"That happened ONE time."

Kimiko's finger finally landed on Sota. "And none of your business in this."

The boy placed his hand on his chest and said solemnly "I promise that if anyone loses their footing it will not be of a direct and cold action of my own."

Kimiko, satisfied with her class, looked at everyone else. "I realize that I don't have any form of control over you all, as you are not in my class, but I ask that you equally act in the same dignified manner." She clambered down and nodded to her homeroom teacher.

Tsukasa clapped his hands once again. "Alright! That would mean just Fumio and Mr. Toshinori here are riding in the car, unless anyone else...? No? Very well then. Shoto would you escort them?" The adult Shoto Todoroki, finally released from the chokehold, shrugged and nodded. He twirled the car keys in his hand and hooked an arm around Fumio's slim shoulders.

Just as Fumio was exiting, he paused in the doorway and looked at his father. "Oh, by the way, the exact time it took Hom to challenge Bakugo over there was 10 minutes and 38 seconds."

Izuku's face lit up. It was as if he materialized next to Katsuki, grinning evily. In one snap of a second, the precious small amount of money Katsuki had won by teasingly betting on his daughter was in Izuku's palm. Before he could object, Izuku far too happily said "hey Katsuki, wanna see a magic trick."

"No." With a twirl of his fingers, the money vanished. Izuku's grin spread from ear to ear. Katsuki scowl deepened. "I hate you."

"Oh give us something new." Izuku smirked, shoving his hands into the large pockets of his heavy duty pants and waltzing to the front door. "Just goes to show you shouldn't bet on your children."

"YOU'RE betting on my children," Katsuki countered.

The gangly nerd splayed his hand on his chest and smiled even wider. "Ah! But I am not a role model to thousands, am I? I am just that annoying scientist in the corner doing whatever the heck he wants to." He turned sharply and smacked face first into the doorframe. He stumbled a bit, then straightened and walked out properly. "And if someone does see me as a role model," he spoke, muffled, "they have very poor judgement!"

Katsuki, Tsukasa, and Kota shook their heads and sighed, leaving Aizawa and the host students very confused at this strange, new, and seemingly uncaring Izuku. Kota laughed and shook his head. "He hasn't changed one bit."

Katsuki snorted. "Speak for yourself." He turned and barked at the waiting students. "Well come on! We don't have all day!"

* * *

A/N

So this is REALLY long, but I just didn't feel like I could properly end it any sooner. There is a ton of dialogue and backstory given for the Cruel characters because, as they are new and not the original kids, there obviously isnt as much known about them. I'm sorry I didn't give each of them a chance to talk, but hey: the chapter would be even longer if I had. Plus when stage one of the week long event gets here, we'll see the kids in action.

Comment, CadB (I think you may be the only one reading the oneshots, but that's ok!) I am glad you're liking this, I promise I won't change it again. Also, for what ever reason, my mental image of Shoto (especially as an adult, though I didn't get to feature it yet,) is a lot more sarcastic and a whole mood than he is in canon.

How other people see adult Todo: I have moved past my father's flaws and focus on fixing my own. I have not forgiven him but merely moved past him: he means nothing to me now.

How I see adult Todo: PeaSaNt I am sarCasTiC, BeaUTiful, and DONE with this CraP and YET you GIVE me THIS to DEaL wItH?!?!?

Lol

Anywho, back on track, the next chapter will also probably be long and will focus on the prep training and mild socializing of the characters. Also, a couple really good and interesting fights and one with some nice parallels I never got to stress before will be featured. I will try to give other characters more screen time, but they will really have to wait until the tournament to get focused on really.

Also, I am going to try to get a normal one-shot up next, as it is going to hopefully mentioned at some point in the Xover, and it wasn't in the Cruel trilogy as I've only thought of it recently.

Here is something I have never explained, but have sortve mentioned, that is hinted at in canon, and that I have accepted as a part of BnHA canon. There are abilities other than quirks in the BnHA universe. Cases: Camie/Toga's ability to turn invisible that has nothing to do with her quirk; and Stain at Hosu when he enters what I can only describe as a blood rage (he immobilized a small force of heroes and students, including Endeavor himself.) As far as I am concerned, these are actual abilities people can learn (among other abilites.) I call them Talents; quirks come by nature, talents come by hard work. Talent may lean more towards what ever the user's quirk may be, but ultimately pretty much any talent could theoretically be learned.

I brought all that up as Izuku (though I never focused on this aside from the occasional mention (such as him exuding a calming or terrifying aura,)) studied these in depth and, being the overachiever he is, learned quite a few. When he came back to society, it was one of his discoveries he shared with the world, and even wrote a book on it. These possibilities will be discussed in depth and used frequently.

Now that should be all.

Here's the list of participants, and So Long Lovies!

* * *

Characters directly involved, original series

Deku

Bakugo

Uraraka

Kirishima

Iida

Mineta

Kaminari

Todoroki

Mina

Shiozaki

Kendo

Monoma

Tetsutetsu

Shinso

Tamaki

Mirio

Adults:

Aizawa, as teacher

All Might, as teacher

Vlad King, as teacher tho he off to the side more than the others

* * *

Cruel series

Female hero:

Kimiko

Homura

Meghumi Todoroki

Molly Blyndeff

Kyo

Hotaru

Male hero:

Gou

Nobu

Ryunosuke

Kotaro

Kenta

Sota

Taiki

Others:

Hiroki

Akio

Fumio

Adults:

Katsuki, as sortve teacher and to keep damage to a minimum

Izuku, as sortve teacher and other roles

Ochako, as to keep damage to a minimum

Shoto, as sortve teacher

Kota, as learning to be a teacher to take over Tsukasa's role

Tsukasa, as hero student homeroom teacher


	11. The Alderaan Massacre

\-- hey, this is called a massacre for a reason. Severe violence, blood, gore, insanity, the works will all be in this. I'm not a crazy gore person, but this is far from pretty. Just, be mindful. --

It didn't feel like it had been half a year.

To Izuku it still felt like it was yesterday: only yesterday he had screamed and raged: only yesterday he had lost himself as he held that broken and bloody body. He could still feel the final ragged breath being drawn in by the man he held in his arms.

It didn't feel like it had been half a year since Akaguro had died.

Izuku had made progress, had tried to pick the pieces back up, but he couldn't go back to being his usual self with his father dead.

What tore him up the most was that he knew he could have saved Akaguro's life; a quick portal marble, boot up the old Lazarus table he had used to save Mrs. Woods, and Akaguro Chizome could have kept living: he could have even taken him to Kai. It would have been easy; not perfect, but no easy thing is.

But he never would have. Akaguro had made his choice that then was when he died, and no matter how much Izuku grew, how much he matured, how much he became an independent soul, he would never go against Akaguro; could never go against him.

Touya and Spinner for the past few months had been trying to get Izuku back into his normal pace, but they had been having difficulty. He was as exceptional as ever, defeating them every turn, but it was clear he wasn't feeling it. Light missions and strikes were the same; he would fight, moving faster and hitting harder than anyone else on the battle field, but then he would usually just stand there, blank-eyed. It was as if he was waiting for something: a pat on the shoulder, a rough voice saying he'd done a good job.

Dabi and Spinner didn't know how to help him. With their own problems they had been on their own and had been forced to work through it on their own or otherwise die.

All they could do was sit back and let him find himself again on his own.

And he was taking his sweet time with it. Sure, he was worlds better than at the start, but he was still very different. He still didn't quite know what to do any longer.

And thus came one very fateful day. Izuku had been more vacant that day, but business was business and he and his three companions still found themselves hurtling through cramped alleyways to their destination: they would have gone by rooftop, but in the afternoon was their only chance to attack, so they had no choice.

The men were chasing a small time gang that had intercepted one of Kai's imports. The only reason all four men were in pursuit was that there was no logical way such a normally weak force could have pulled an operation like this on their own; so it was simply safer to send the whole group.

They hadn't expected that the small gang had been bought by a much stronger group of radical Stain fanatics. The radical group was known for killing heroes and even civilians in broad daylight, claiming that every hero must die and all who support heroes must die with them. They were a sloppy brute force of half-baked fighters who bludgeoned their way through fights. They had no morals as to who they killed.

And so Izuku found himself surrounded by fifty unhinged barbarians, separated from his teammates, and already taking damage despite his upgrades to his suit. The leader of the group stalked forward, smirking.

"The cowardly boy!" He jeered down at Izuku, wanting nothing more than to behead the 19 year-old right then and there. "The one who twisted the wants and ideals of Stain, sucking up to him and twisting a perfect plan!"

Stain's Apprentice growled, tightening his grip around his sword. The new additions to his gloves pressed into his palms, begging to be let loose. "You don't know what he wanted..." he warned.

A helicopter zoomed into focus on them. One of the radicals went to bring it down with a thrown axe, but was stopped by a comrade. "He wanted to eradicate every hero, save All Might, but then you came along! You softened him!" The high and nasally voice grated on the nerves as the leader spoke again. "You convinced him to spare the life of snot nosed children who are no better off than they once were! You convinced him to spare the lives of dozens of worthless heroes! You kept him chained and under the illusion of freedom! Then, as soon as he was gone, you went behind his back and took All Might down."

Izuku's rage hit a boiling point. He was not the type to get irrationally angry, but when he did, a talent of his slipped from his grasp and rose on it's own; an emotional manipulation power: one that he frequently used to terrify his victims so they froze and he could quickly dart in for the kill. What he had come to call Blood Rage now poured out of him in pulsing waves. "You never knew him. You have NO PLACE TO SPEAK SUCH THINGS!"

These men were so unhinged that Blood Rage was having no effect on them. "YOU DIDN'T DESERVE TO STAND IN CLOSE PROXIMITY TO HIM!" The leader screamed back at Izuku, eyes popping with rage and madness as he clenched his blunt war hammer more tightly. "YOU'RE WEAK! AND YOU MADE HIM WEAK! YOU FEEL PITY AND LOVE AND FORCED HIM TO FEEL THE SAME!"

It was then that the leader spoke the last straw. He would topple his life and the life of his comrades with a few insane words: he would put the lives of nearby civilians in danger, though many had already fled. Unknowingly, he was was about to seal the ending of Stain's Revolution. Unknowingly, he forced The Apprentice to finally and fully take on the name Stain. Unknowingly, he took the last step to send Izuku into permanent madness.

"YOU'RE THE REASON STAIN IS DEAD"

Izuku was gone.

He could take insults that he had crippled his father, for he knew they were false: the words of Akaguro himself and Dabi were reinforced in Izuku's mind to shield him from these doubts. He knew that he hadn't deserved Akaguro to give him a second chance at life, but that didn't stop the fact that he had been chosen to fulfill his father's ideals.

But implying that Izuku had caused the death of the one person Izuku loved more than anyone?

The new Stain moved on less than instinct. He let his rage go, turning Blood Rage into pure Blood Lust; and finally the emotional warfare was recognized in the minds of the lunatic radicals: it was too late. The news helicopter had to turn away and focus on the heroic efforts to save the lives of fleeing civilians as Izuku lost control of himself and began to slaughter the men before him.

He couldn't feel pain.

He couldn't feel sympathy.

All that drove Izuku was the need to kill these baseless hypocrites.

He was merciless to any of them that fell into his hands. One of Izuku's upgrades was a beam of pure energy he could shoot from his palm (think Iron Man style.): the power ripped through men, leaving gaping holes and insides bare to the elements. His short sword and his father's katana ripped through man after man as he left them decimated in small pieces.

One tiny fragment of Izuku remained: he would never harm a civilian. Many had gotten caught by the fanatics and effectively held hostage, or had fallen prone when the blood bath began. Though Izuku couldn't even register his actions, neither his blades nor hands ever touched an innocent. People would run and scream as their captors were sliced in two, but Stain hadn't caused harm to one innocent.

These people would run for their lives to outside the circle of buildings Izuku and the men were trapped in. Heroes would rush for them, grabbing them and carrying them to safety. Not one dared to get too close to the rampaging monster they knew as Stain.

One nearly did. Bakugo Katsuki so desperately wanted to fight in that battle, to maybe take Izuku in; but his duties resided in the people first and foremost: he had learned that now. So, no matter how much he wanted to unleash his own true power augmented by All Might's strength, Katsuki turned and ran to a screaming woman to carry her bridal style to the medic tent. She was covered in the blood of her attacker: Izuku had beheaded him on the spot.

As he was trying to calm her on the way, shouts arose in the crowd, people screaming to get out of the way. Just as Katsuki stopped to look, a black blur zoomed out of the crowd, burning glaive in hand as he rushed to his brother's side.

Dabi caught Katsuki's eye for one second; they shared a look, and all of his need to rush to Izuku abandoned Katsuki. He knew that even if he tried to take Izuku, he wouldn't be able to; he didn't even know if Dabi could help Izuku at this point, but the look in the burnt man's world gaze promised that he would not rest without trying.

Ironic, that Katsuki had to trust a villain to help mend someone he himself owned the largest part in breaking.

But he had to.

A building was beginning to topple, and Katsuki rushed alongside his girlfriend to save it and the people inside.

Dabi turned his gaze away from Bakugo, and finally saw Stain's carnage. At the start of the fight, he had been pulled away and had to fight for his life against twenty men armed to the teeth: never had he been so thankful for the weapon Izuku had given him two years prior. From there is had been easy to follow the sounds of screams and destruction.

He knew his brother was at the center of it. Izuku always was after all.

But Dabi stopped dead at what he saw. Bodies were strewn everywhere, blood soaking into every crack and sticking to Stain's suit. The boy was taking damage head on and not flinching as he chopped and burned the radical gang. His suit was in tatters: it was drenched with blood and nearly falling off of his shoulders as he mercilessly threw himself at the last few men. Waves of unbridled murderous intent were pouring through the clearing, almost distorting the vision.

Dabi wanted to call out. He wanted to tackle his brother, snap him out of this fury and to remind his brother that this was not who he was.

But Dabi was frozen. On the other side of the court was Spinner, and Elijah on a rooftop, both similarly frozen.

With a final scream, the leader was beheaded. Izuku raised his palm to face the corpse, nailing him with beam after beam of pure energy until there was nothing left to fall to the ground but a severed head.

Izuku finally stopped.

He came to his senses.

The swords clattered outof his hands and landed with a clanging squelch on the pavement.

All he could see was blood. All there was to see was blood.

Izuku fell to his knees, nearly collapsing face first. The camera helicopter, sensing that the battle was over, foolishly refocused on the scene.

It wasn't the bodies that would traumatize the viewers for years to come.

It was the lack of bodies.

Izuku began to sob uncontrollably, shock pounding in his head as he stared at the severed head of a man. He didn't even know who they had been. He didn't even know what their lives may have been. Yet he slaughtered them.

There were sticky steps approaching him. Touya was in front of him, kneeling in the blood and muck to hold his brother: Izuku couldn't even hold him back. Touya was scrambling for his own strength. He needed to get Izuku out but... he himself couldn't even see straight. Touya forced himself to calm down, using an old trick: he thought of Mika; how she cared for him and loved him even though he was a murderer; how she had agreed to marry him recently; how she could calm him out of any mood; how she trusted he would come home again, and would never hurt her; how she loved Izuku and the others as her family.

He found his strength in that and, trembling, he hoisted Izuku into his arms. As he stomped on a dropped portal marble, he could see Spinner and Elijah snapping out of their dazes and doing the same. He jumped through with Izuku cradled in his arms.

The three landed heavily on the apartment floor. Touya wasted no time and rushed to the bathroom; with a quick drag of his fingers across various cybernetics on Izuku's body, the suit and gear dissipated into nothing (when he next materialized the outfit, it would be clean and without damage.) Izuku was sat on the floor of the shower, down to only a tank top and his heavy duty pants and boots.

Touya turned and called for Spinner to, "Get the healing bandages now!" The lizard man rushed to do so and Elijah rushed to his family to keep them from stumbling upon the sight. Touya turned back to Izuku and threw the shower on. Instantly the boy was drenched in a torrent of cold water and he gasped involuntarily, choking off another sob. The older man turned the temperature warmer, but still kept it cold to shock Izuku back into reality: he wasn't sure if that was smart, but it seemed to be working so he was doing it anyway.

Detaching the handle, Touya dragged the stream of water over the gashes and bruises on Izuku's body, not caring that the boy was still clothed. Spinner barged into the bathroom, loaded with the bandages.

It took them an hour to sufficiently clean and bandage Izuku. They had to throw several towels away, knowing the blood would never come out. He was stripped of his soaked clothing and wrapped in a bathrobe before they carried him into the livingroom and bundled him into blankets. His breathing was still jagged, but his eyes were clear and he had stopped sobbing. Izuku was trembling from head to toe. Remy leapt onto the couch and began to lick Izuku's face: he leaned into her soft golden fur, prompting her to curl up in his lap though she no longer fit and lick his hand. When he moved his hand to scratch her, she began licking his arm instead.

As they were trying to get Izuku to respond, Mika burst into the apartment, still dressed in her barista smock.

"Babe, you really shouldn't-" Touya began to protest, but Mika cut him off.

"Do not tell me I shouldn't be concerned about the well being of my husband and brothers." Mika shuttled Touya out of the way, not caring that he was pretty well covered in blood, and knelt in front of Izuku. She laid a hand on Izuku's face, hissing when she felt how hot he had become. "Get Mrs. Lily: he's running a fever. Probably from shock." Mika let her hand melt and transform into a thermometer, gently telling Izuku to open his mouth and positioning the instrument under his tongue. The device beeped and flashed a reading: Mika cursed at how high it was. She stood and began filling a bag with ice and water.

Lily and Mika took over from the boys, bustling back and forth as they tended to Izuku. Eventually however, they ran out of tasks sp they busied themselves with cleaning the new blood stains on the floor boards. Izuku was still right where he had been placed and he had barely managed any words other than "yes" or "no". He was red faced and pale, still attempting to rationalize his actions.

Matthew poked his head through the door. Three years had only served to enhance his canine features, but he was still the unchanged young boy Izuku had adopted as a younger brother. As he walked into the room, he finished chewing and swallowed the last of his late lunch. His mother caught sight of him. "Sweetie, now isn't a good time."

Matthew, out of character for his quite obedient and meek self, ignored his mother. He clambered up onto the couch and curled up into Izuku's bandaged side: Remy spared a moment from her licking of Izuku's face to lick the back of Matthew's neck. Izuku looked down at his little brother and muttered a weak, "Mattie?"

The boy's nose had begun to glow and twitch as he activated his quirk. Burning through the meal he just had, he transferred the vitality of what he just ate into Izuku, slightly accelerating the healing process. Izuku's fever flush drained down his neck at the effects of the quirk and he slumped backwards in the relief.

It was many minutes after Matthew's nose stopped glowing that Izuku spoke.

"I'm sorry."

Touya almost glared at him. "What are you on about?"

"I'm sorry I scared you all. I'm sorry I lost control. I-... they-..."

Touya forgot his anger and held Izuku's hand. "It's alright. It's not the first time something like this has happened after all."

"It's the worst though," he muttered. Izuku's face crumpled in a self-loathing scowl. "I just, in the space of an hour, destroyed any chance for the cause." He talked over the others' arguments. "There is quite the difference between following a murderer who you have rarely seen in action, and following a murderer who just proved he's unstable in doing... in doing what he just did," he said tactfully, remembering the younger ears in the room.

Spinner frowned. "You really think the cause can be stopped so easily? We've been throwing fuel onto the fire for years now, and people have been listening and adding their own fuel. Just the other day a peaceful group of protesters got three false gits sacked!" He too knelt down by Izuku, smiling fondly. "We don't show our faces often, but none of us have ever claimed to be mentally stable or incapable of going all out like you did."

Touya nodded and spoke before Izuku could interject with more pessimistic arguments. "Look, it's already happened. We'll just have to wait and see how the public reacts, but it won't stop us from pushing towards the finish line."

So they waited. They waited for the people to process what had happened. They waited for the scarce footage of his carnage to be reviewed and analyzed.

They didn't have to wait long.

The event exploded on the media. Fanatics leapt onto every detail, pointing out that it was logical for the new Stain to react when faced with falsehoods and spiteful jabs at his predecessor: they raved that he almost flat out protected civilians while many heroes failed in that regard: they sat on his side of the ship, saying that the first Stain didn't choose incorrectly when picking his Apprentice. Of course, the more logical and level headed fanatics had to push that they could never condone murder or life threatening violence in any shape, form, or situation; but their silence rang out that they couldn't find it in themselves to condemn Stain either.

The cries of those against Stain were swallowed in the commotion of the common people's shift of opinion.

Izuku was astounded. Despite four years of learning how to understand people and analyze everyone down to their core, he still often found himself dumbfounded by the extremes people would go to. He had bluntly and brutally murdered fifty men in broad daylight, and yet people turned it to his advantage.

How?

They should be repulsed by him, screaming bloody murder, pointing accusing fingers to what was being called the "Alderaan Massacre."

And yet they began to host and attend "Stain rallies": he couldn't help going under cover to many of them. Within a month he began dropping in full gear at some of his choice favoirite speakers. Sometimes he was given full control over a rally, answering questions with his ingrained responses and thought out explanations.

Around a year after the loss of Akaguro, and half a year from massacre, Izuku found himself sitting atop a short building, almost idly chatting with an enraptured crowd.

He could see Mei in the crowd; he ignored the flutters his heart gave everytime she looked at him (which was a lot.)

Izuku mulled over a question thrown at him, scratching his unmasked chin: it was so dark, he had no need for a mask, though his goggles remained on. (Plus the audio distortion made him hard to understand.) "You can't just judge somebody on a surface level. You have to dig, find out whether he or she truly deserves your judgement. My targets are not random."

A woman spoke up, her sharp voice filled with distrust. "And who made you the official in charge of 'judging' the men and women we call heroes?"

Izuku scoffed. He knew this question well. He'd wrestled with it himself when he was young and new. "No one." He chuckled at their murmurs. "I am the last person fit to be judging their sins, being just as much of a criminal as many of them. But..." he leaned forward, raising a finger in the air. "Nobody was taking the necessary steps when I was younger. That's why Father and I both stepped into this role: no one else would do what needed to be done. And that's why you, the common people, are so vital."

"Pardon?" The woman said over the shocked mutters of her fellows.

"We're criminals, my men and I. The government will never listen to us: we're just a threat. All of this," he waved his hand without meaning, "was to raise attention. Now the future of heroic society and society for the normal folk is in your hands. You can't deny what I've proven (the sins of many of your beloved 'heroes',) but the question remains what will you do with it? The government knows that it's up to you now, and that is why they're more frantic than ever to stop me. If they prove I'm no longer 'in control' then it'll effectively arrest the power back into their hands: the window of opportunity will be missed: all my work and all my Father's sacrifices will be for nothing."

The crowd was silent for a beat. They were so used to heroes being in control, the police being unneccesary, and the government not caring, that the concept of them changing their country thrilled them. One kid grinned widely, power rushing to his mind. "I'll get every hero out of the seat of power they don't deserve!"

Izuku shook his head. "No," he chastised. "I've told you. Not every one is corrupt. Many have changed and grown for the better, admitting their faults and crimes and moving to repair the damage they have caused: some were never corrupt to begin with. That is why you must search. Records of activities are not hard to find, and there you must search for crimes. Learn how to read a people: see if they are acting to genuinely help others or themselves. Determine who is truly working to make up for their mistakes and crimes and who are simply trying to survive for their power." Izuku shifted to a more comfortable position, breaching a sensitive subject. "Example, Katsuki Bakugo. We all know how he was like when he first entered the heroic scene, do we not?" The crowd murmured, remembering the raging monster during his first UA Sport Festival. "Look at him now. Who is first in his mind? His own self? Or the safety of the civilians he has sworn to protect? If he had not changed, then a few months ago, when I lost myself at Alderaan, he would have charged in to attack me without hesitation. But did he? What did he do?"

Izuku waited until one timid voice spoke up. "He stayed behind? He helped the civilians and stopped that building from toppling with his power and with Uraraka."

Izuku snapped a finger into a finger gun at the plant covered girl who had spoken. "Exactly. If you watch the footage, you can see it in his eyes that he truly did want to go after me, but he knew two things. One, he could potentially get himself killed, in which he could be of no use to anyone. Two, there were countless helpless civilians, and as far as he knew he could be the only one who could help them." Izuku leaned forward, his voice filling with an old passion anew. "He chose others over himself where previously all that mattered was being better than everyone else. I know of at least one person deeply wounded by Katsuki's old actions; but when Bakugo seemingly lost that person, he began to change, to mature, and began to search for that person to make amends. He is still searching when everyone else deemed it hopeless." Izuku shook his finger as he held it aloft, emphasizing his words. "That is what we are looking for. Hearts for the people."

Izuku tilted his head, searching his internal clock. "It's late. The next patrol will be around soon. I suggest you all head home to your families."

The people began to disperse, muttering to each other and themselves. Izuku began to rush along the rooftops freely; yet something bugged him to slow down, to turn back, and to follow a familiar head of pink hair home. He would follow silently, watching over Mei until he needed to intervene on her behalf. Little did he know, she was the last piece to his puzzle of recovery.

A/N

So there you go. This whole chapter could be placed neatly in the 2/3rd's mark of chapter 5 of Cruel Destiny, right up to the end of that chapter. I named this chapter after Alderaan (obviously) because Horikoshi is well known for loving starwars and naming cities after planets and cities in starwars. I really loved getting to stress several things here: Izuku's instability, getting to actually show of Mika, the radical views of splinter groups, and how quickly once allies can turn to bitter enemies (the radical splinter group, specifically.) It is a known theme throughout history that people can take anything and twist it too far.

I don't really have anything else to add here, so so long Lovies!


	12. Xover 3

Toshinori and Fumio sat in the car quietly, Shoto humming tunelessly and tapping his fingers on the steering wheel. Fumio shifted down into the seat, crossing his arms with a soft grate of metal through his shirt fabric. Toshinori observed the robotic child through the corner of his eye. The boy had no facial features or curves, but only a smooth surface in the basic shape of a skull: much like an artist's very beginning sketches of a head. The only shape given was a small bump where a nose should have been and the rounded dome of his "skull".

Then there was the metal Fumio was made of. Toshi was sure he had never seen a metal or an alloy like that: it shone in fascinating appeal and carried an illusion to be rippling like water. The boy's pixilated teal blue eyes seemed to float on his metallic face, like a water bug: the design was incredibly simplistic: a circle with a rounded line extending from it. The rest of Fumio's body was sleek, but not delicate; and despite his lack of a need for modesty, the boy wore long sleeve dress shirts and jeans coupled with basic running shoes.

"I've always been told its rude to stare, Mr. Toshinori."

Toshinori blushed and looked down at his feet. "My apologies. I've just..." he trailed off.

"'You've never seen anything like me', I know." Fumio finally turned from the window. Though his voice was level and calm, Toshi couldn't help but suspect slight judgement in the statement. "I've heard that a million times. It's right up there with 'why were you made', and 'why does Dr. Midoriya call you his son if he made you'. That kind of thing."

Toshinori gulped, trying not to ask those exact questions. He heard Shoto give a slight snort. "Oh just ask him. It'll come out sooner or later. It always has."

"Well," Toshinori mumbled, looking both ashamed that he was so easily read and eager to know the answers, "if you don't mind..."

"Not at all." Fumio shifted again, sitting upright and leaning his head back against the headrest. "When Mom and Dad got married, it wasn't long after that they announced they were expecting a child. Dad was still hot and fresh in the eyes of the news and media, so he was constantly being pulled away from work to talk on shows and on radio.

"Then just a few months in, Mom miscarried." Toshinori sucked in a gasp through gritted teeth: he knew of many friends and family members who had suffered miscarriages. The development of quirk had made biology unstable in multiple ways, and had increased risk during child carriage and birth. "They were of course devastated; and it was another big hit on the news. (After that Dad started going to media attendances less and less, or not at all most times.) The evening after," here Fumio's voice cut off, replaced by a recording of a slightly younger Dr. Izuku. "'I had just wandered into the lab, out of my mind with shock. You know how I absentmindedly fiddle and build: I began building simple bodies and taking them apart, not even recognizing what I was doing. When I did finally come to, I had a small, infant sized frame before me, and a plan hatched. I'll admit, you were originally supposed to have a much lower intelligence, something closer to Governor, but then your Mother and I kept tossing around the word 'son' and I leapt head first into the most complicated AI I could have ever dreamed of. You wouldn't be 'born', per-say, with all the world in your mind, but would learn and, as close as we could, you would think. You have made your own decisions son, and chosen your own destiny. I may have started you, but you are the one who has made yourself into who you are.'" Fumio clicked off the recording and stared deep into Toshinori's eyes. "Does that clear everything up?"

The older man nodded dumbly.

Fumio seemed satisfied, nodding as well. "Good." He returned to staring out the window.

The rest of the short ride was in silence. As they finally rolled into the parking lot of the training facility they saw the majority of the teens and teachers huddled together, recieving instructions and being shuttled off into groups per teacher: Izuku was off to the side, talking on the phone and looking mildly upset. As the three clambered out of the car they could pick up the wind of his conversation.

"-- and you make sure he doesn't get into anything like this again. Sheesh brother he's over 60: one bullet alone could kill him even if it doesn't hit anything vital!... Yeah you better... See you. If he suddenly goes downhill call me... Yep." Izuku clicked the 'end call' button and rolled his eyes as he rejoined the group.

Fumio strolled over to his father, Akio and Hiroki not far away. "What happened?"

"Your uncle Iguchi got into another street fight," Izuku explained, still quite miffed, "and he got shot in the arm for his troubles."

Some nearby eavesdroppers hissed in sympathy. "Will he be ok?" Hiroki asked, very fond of his lizard "uncle".

Izuku pinched the bridge of his nose. "Yeah, your Uncle T and Aunt M got the bullet out and he's wrapped in the best healing bandages available, but I imagine he'll have trouble using that arm the same."

Deku, listening to this conversation, frowned and hummed to himself. He was an only child: he never had any brothers or sisters. So unless these uncles and aunt were on Dr. Izuku's wife's side, (the mother of Fumio and Hiroki,) then he didn't see how they could have an uncle named Iguchi. Unless...

"He's always been a rather lonely guy," Kimiko had said. At the time they had been talking about the kids seeing Izuku as their uncle despite the lack of blood relationship. It was implied that him "adopting" others as family was quite common: maybe he'd adopted these others too.

Suddenly Aizawa's capture weapon tightened around Deku's forehead and forced the boy to look his teacher in the eye. "Are you even paying attention Trouble Child?" He asked, voice low.

Deku blushed and said that he was, bowing furiously once his head was free. Some of the other students ribbed him and chuckled at his expense, but they were one upped by Dr. Izuku cackling out an obnoxious "oh that sounds familiar."

Aizawa, ignoring them all, continued on. "Each teacher or two teachers will have a group of students from the opposite world to examine, with the exception of Dr. Izuku, who is taking those three to work on the separately." Izuku, Akio, Fumio, and Hiroki smiled awkwardly at the focus on them. "The groups are as follows. Katsuki, you're taking Deku, Uraraka, Kirishima, Shinso, and Mirio. Shoto, you take Bakugo, Tamaki, Mineta, Kaminari, and Tetsutetsu. Tsukasa and Kota, you have Iida, Shiozaki, Mina, Kendo, Monoma, and Todoroki."

The three teachers nodded and directed the children to their sides. "The groupings aren't going to be changed. We specifically avoided pairing adults with their teen counterparts." Aizawa ruffled his paper of listed pairs. "Vlad, you get Homura, Hotaru, Nobu, Kotaro, Sota, and Taiki. All Might and I are taking Kimiko, Gou, Meghumi, Ryunosuke, Kenta, Kyo, and Molly. Each teacher will have their own floor of the building, except for Dr. Izuku again, who will be on the same floor as Bakugo give that he only has three to work with and the bottom floor is the largest. Any questions?" There were no questions. "Good. After this examination will be en masse training in the bottom floor, then lunch. After that you're free. In terms of the examination, your teacher will go over the fine points but it stands as this: attack the teacher, but you may not use your quirk to attack; but using it for mobility or another tactic is allowed." Aizawa turned and slouched away towards the building, waving his hand in the air nonchalantly. "Give it your all, plus ultra, yada yada, keep up."

Aizawa's students and All Might scrambled to catch up with the sleep deprived teacher. The other groups struck off too, each heading to their own floor. The adult Katsuki rolled his shoulders and slunk off towards the ground floor of the building, calling "well come on then," over his shoulder. The five friends shared looks and trotted after.

The room was large and had training equipment shuttled off to the far corners. The tiles had rough texture to them to improve traction for running and moving, though they held for the potential for scrapped hands and knees if someone slipped. Katsuki sniffed. "A'ight, I'm not cutting corners here. You heard Aizawa: use your quirks in any way that doesn't involve violence directed at me or another person; and I won't be using mine at all."

Mirio raised his hand. "Doesn't that put you at a disadvantage to us?" Katsuki's derisive snort was answer enough.

"Your goal is to land a hit on me." He smirked at their faces. "Yyyep. No tricks." Deku squinted. There was definately some trick here. Izuku snorted, coming up to stand next to Katsuki, who squinted at the proximity but continued on anyway. "To demonstrate (since apparantly I have to,) Izuku is going to act on the offensive (your parts,) and I am going to evade. Back up."

The kids couldn't decide if Katsuki was directing that last order to them or Izuku, but they backed up anyway: with Shinso and Mirio excluded, the students were in slight shock that Katsuki had so casually called Dr. Izuku by his first name and not the derogatory name "Deku". The two adults, several long paces away from each other, lowered into fight ready stances.

Izuku, being forced into the role of offensive, darted forward with a sharp strike of his palm: Katsuki leapt out of the way, only to be slammed in the chest with a surprise kick. He let out an "oomf" of surprise and stumbled backwards. He rubbed his chest and glared at Izuku. "Could you maybe make it last more than two seconds?! The whole purpose is to be an example or some crap!"

Izuku, grinning from ear to ear and bouncing slightly, looked to Katsuki is mock surprise. "And go easy on you? I thought it was always 'fight me with everything you've got'?"

The students blinked and shook their heads, trying to comprehend what had just happened. Izuku rounded on his heel and smirked at the teens. "Lesson number one, never give your opponent an opportunity to breathe or fight back. Lesson number two, always take them by surprise."

Kirishima pointed at Izuku as Katsuki growled. "How'd you get so good at fighting? I thought you were a scientist?"

"Ah, I started taking fighting lessons when I was around 14: basic hand to hand, martial arts, weaponry, the like." He shrugged nonchalantly. "I was quite the overachiever then and got used to never having a free moment, so if I wasn't cramming science and book knowledge into my skull, I was tearing up my training room or doing parkour across Japan. I daresay I got quite good." He smiled brightly, ignoring Katsuki's attempts to regain control of the test. "That's why I'm taking Akio, Hiroki, and Fumio separately: Akio is the only one who has even just a little knowledge about combat, and they won't be doing much if any fighting during the tournament, so I'm teaching them how to evade. But who knows? I might just steal one or two of you guys away if I feel I could majorly improve your fighting techniques." This last bit he spoke as he began to turn and walk to the back of the room, beckoning the three boys to follow.

Katsuki was pinching the bridge of his nose. It looked like he was fighting to control his temper. "Okay," he hissed, barely audible over the sounds of Izuku instructions on basic foot work, "let's get started then. Shinso, you first."

The purple haired teen stepped up, hands raised to fight. "I suppose using my quirk would be considered a foul of the rules?"

"Yep." Katsuki looked the teen dead in the eyes, challenging him to dare use his quirk.

Shinso did not. He lunged at Katsuki, but the man was much faster: by the time Shinso lunged again, Katsuki had already moved again. It took fifteen minutes for Shinso to finally land a hit on the Pro, and that was with Katsuki dropping hints and tips on his combat style to reduce the amount of energy he was exerting and improve his efficiency. Shinso was covered in sweat, bent over with his palms on his knees. Katsuki didn't look fazed at all.

"Uraraka, you next."

Deku pat her on the shoulder, wishing her luck. Uraraka smiled, removed the gravity of her clothing and shoes, and stepped up to take Shinso's place. Her performance was slightly better (having trained in one on one combat with Gunhead,) but it still took her roughly the same time. At one point Izuku trotted over to give his boys a break: he instructed Uraraka how to place her feet and swing to increase the speed and force of her punches. It wasn't long after his intervention that Uraraka slammed her knuckles into Katsuki's forearm. Both men looked very pleased with her progress.

"Mirio."

Deku watched carefully as Mirio took Uraraka's place. If Dr. Izuku had run away at 14-15, then that meant he had never gone to UA, never met Mirio as a teen, and never received One for All. Deku had no idea what that meant for Eri or for anything concerning Overhaul, but he wondered if that meant this other world's Mirio still had his quirk or not. He watched Katsuki carefully.

He was right! As the adult pro lowered into a fighting stance, he kept one hand behind himself and placed one foot to allow him to swivel quickly and catch an attack from behind.

'They don't know Mirio lost his quirk!'

Katsuki was indeed surprised to find that Mirio attacked straight on. Mirio so far was pushing Katsuki the furthest, his speed and strength as phenomenal as ever even without his quirk. It was only a few minutes however before Katsuki halted the match. "Wait wait wait," he said, waving his hands. He pointed a finger at Mirio. "Why aren't you using your quirk?"

Mirio straightened, blank faced. "I no longer have one."

"WHAT," Izuku yelled across the room, stumbling and looking at Mirio in utter shock.

"I lost it several months ago, during the fight with Overhaul."

Katsuki, looking troubled, hummed. "The quirk erasing bullets, am I right? And you said this was several months ago? I don't remember our you losing his quirk that day. Honestly not a lot happened in that fight."

Izuku and Mirio paled. "Then what about Eri?" Mirio promptly asked.

"Hmm? Oh yeah, she's fine. Overhaul took a," Katsuki's voice turned sour as he spat out, "'business partner', and it would seem part of the deal was the release of Eri." With the exception of Shinso (who had no part in the fight against Overhaul,) the students sighed in relief. Katsuki smiled at their worry and turned and yelled over his shoulder at Izuku. "Hey, you know if she finished college yet or not?"

"She did." Izuku walked over, his boys slumped on the floor and panting from the unusual exercise. "She's now a registered Therapist and Psychologist specializing in cases concerning victims of unusual criminal acts and violence, but she's open to domestic cases as well. I've gone to her a few times myself, when I've had exceptionally bad days." He smiled brightly at the thought of his young friend. "Eri is a wonderful ray of sunshine to be around."

Mirio straightened, looking both relieved and concerned at the same time. "But then what about Chisaki? You said nothing much of significance happened that day. Did he escape? And why would another villain care about the well being of Eri?"

Katsuki sighed. "Yeah, due to his 'business partner', Kai Chisaki evaded the police and heroes for many more years. His new technologies could be found all across the black market, but never could be traced back to him or his counterpart. But he couldn't run forever: the Mirio I know and I finally cornered him and carted him off. His partner and he cut off their business relation after their five some years which had left Kai exposed and vulnerable. As for the partner," Katsuki shook his head, expression turning sour again, "I'd rather we didn't discuss it right now: there's a lost of near volatile details to detangle with him and we dont have time for that."

Izuku shrugged and walked away to his boys as Mirio nodded in acceptance. "Back to work then?"

"One question. Even though you've lost your quirk, are you still trying to be a hero?"

Mirio paused at the question, then beamed. "Of course! I've promised to save one million people: I've only really saved one so far. I've put all this work and effort into it, I can't rightly stop now!"

Katsuki blinked for a second. After a moment's rest, he stuck out his fist for a bump. "That's cool man, best of luck to you." Deku and Izuku both froze at those words; but Izuku was frozen for only a split second before he returned to hounding the three support teens.

How many times when they were children had they wished for something like that to be said? A simple "I think you can make it" or "try your best, I believe in you"? For Deku it had finally come in All Might, ironically after that same man had crushed his dream. For Dr. Midoriya, it had come from another.

Without regard to Deku having a minor midlife crisis, Mirio and Katsuki began again. They each had renewed vigor in their fight and (unsurprisingly due to Mirio's intense fighting method and training,) he got shortest time in just under seven minutes.

Katsuki was finally looking slightly affected as he straightened and called up Kirishima. Kiri had his usual sense of confidence and unbreakable manliness about him, but Deku couldn't help but feel that he was hiding his nervousness. He had heard from Mirio who had heard from Tamaki who had heard from Fat Gum about Kirishima's hidden insecurity: Deku wondered if his friend was concerned he wouldn't stand up to the Kirishima this Katsuki knew.

In an attempt to cheer the red head up, Deku lightly punched Kiri in the arm, telling him that he had this match in the bag.

He didn't have it in the bag. The spare match dragged on to ten minutes: then fifteen: then twenty. Kiri eventually was hunched over, palms on knees, panting and growling in irritation. Katsuki was frowning: he could see a wide gap between the Kirishima he knew and this teen version, but he couldn't piece together what was missing.

Kirishima was about to yell that it was no good, that he'd never finish the test at this rate, when Dr. Izuku walked over. "If I may, I think I know exactly how to help."

"What, a new training schedule?" The statement was almost as cynical as it was nearly disrespectful.

Izuku gave Kiri a short glare and the temperature in the room noticeably dropped. "No," he said slowly. "This would take 20 minutes tops. But if you don't want my help..."

The boy blushed and hung his head. "No, I do, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have snapped like that. It's just-- I always feel like I cant get any better!"

"What a load of garbage." Katsuki spat. "Of course you can."

Izuku nodded, having already brushed over the tiny insult. "Yeah, that's why we're here! Trust me on this. Besides, Katsuki can test Midget over there and the boys need a break that's longer than two minutes anyway."

"Please," Hiroki gasped out, flat on the floor.

Izuku rolled his eyes and shouted "You're fine" over his shoulder. Hesitantly, Kirishima followed Izuku and left his four fellow classmates.

Katsuki shrugged and squared Deku in his gaze. "Guess it's your turn early. Step up." Deku did indeed step up. He saw the three support teens join his four fellows. Deku ran over the simple rules of the test in his mind: hit Katsuki, don't hit with quirk. Easy. "You ready?" Katsuki asked, lowering into a fighting stance.

Before the adult could process, Izuku sent green sparks of electricity flying across his body and propelled himself through the air. Katsuki was barely able to dodge due to his blatant shock. He recovered quickly. To everyone's surprise, he began to complain.

"You have a quirk, Mirio DOESN'T have a quirk, you're a hero, you kids aren't having to deal with HIM looming over you at every turn: is everything here backwards or something?!" He dodged out of the way of a kick, glad the kid couldn't attack either his quirk so he had precious milliseconds to get out of the way.

Izuku called across the room as he trained with Kirishima. "It's another world Katsuki. Get over it." Katsuki reflexively stopped to glare at Izuku, and got punched in the kidney for it.

He wheezed out a sigh through his pain and looked Deku in the eye. "That's quite the quirk you have there. What is it?"

"Oh, an augmentation quirk. It increases things like my strength and speed, but it's really strong and will injure me if I use more than my body can handle." The lie rolled easily off of his tounge at this point. He could feel Dr. Izuku's penetrating look picking through the falsehood and piercing the back of his neck.

"You're damaged by it?"

Deku rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah. For whatever reason my quirk didn't manifest until I was around 15, just in time to make it into UA, so I started way behind everyone else. It had started mutating too, giving me new abilities." This lie was far more complex, and one he didn't often bring up.

Katsuki looked suspicious. He looked like he knew something was off in Deku's story, but he didn't get a chance to ask further.

Right at that moment Kirishima was accidentally launched into the wall behind Katsuki. He blinked with a deer-in-the-headlights look. "Oh. There's a wall there," he observed.

"Yeah, you wanna look out for walls!" Izuku advised. "I can tell you from experience that walls will either save your life or screw you over in a fight." He helped pull Kirishima from the slightly busted wall. Dusting his hands, Izuku turned to Katsuki and cheerfully said, "alright. He's ready for you now."

"Wait what?!" Kirishima protested. "But I haven't got full control of this yet! We've only been working for ten minutes."

"Well clearly neither does Midget here with his quirk, but that's not stopping him. The best way to learn and test something is to go for it head first... with the neccesary saftey precautions of course. Besides, if you REALLY want to know," Izuku bent down, and whispered something in Kirishima's ear, quietly enough that he couldn't be heard. He leaned back, looking mischievous. "Got it?"

Confidence regained, Kirishima nodded. He and Katsuki once again lowered into fighting stances. Slowly his body began to harden, spreading from his torso downwards until it reached his ankles and wrists.

As the quirk reached his feet, Kirishima quickly hardened the rest of his body and leapt forward, the force and shock of the activation propelling him forward behind Katsuki. He landed, twisted, and threw up a kick aimed at the man's shoulder. Katsuki shot out of the way, looking delighted. They continued to dance around the floor, much faster and more violently than their first time: they both were grinning ear to ear and Katsuki happily crowed "that's more like it!"

Ten minutes in, Kirishima feigned propelling himself behind Katsuki again, and instead leapt to his side. Katsuki realized too late. Kirishima threw his entire body into a punch aimed at one specific spot.

What Izuku had whispered in his ear wasn't a tip to control his newfound ability, but a tip to defeat Katsuki. "Several years ago, the idiot got into a fight and strained his back. As far as he could see at the time, it wasn't bad enough to seek medical attention, so he let it be. Now normally, when he's in full suit, it's not a liability; but since he's out of suit, if you hit him just below his right shoulder blade,'

Katsuki was thrown a fair distance away from a frozen Kirishima and smug Izuku who knew full well what was going to happen. Katsuki landed on the floor with a heavy thud and a pained grunt: he clambered to his feet, glaring at Izuku. "You told him to hit there, didn't you." It wasn't a question.

Izuku bat his eyes and smiled. "Who... me??? Never!"

"This is why no one likes you."

"Oh see if I care."

Katsuki growled, but turned back to the situation at hand and walked to Kirishima quite stiffly. "You did good. For a moment I thought I was up against the Kirishima I grew up with."

Deku was sure he had never seen Kirishima look so hopeful and proud as he did in that moment.

A/N

Why are my oneshots longer than my average chapters? No one aside from CadB is even reading these.

Well.

There's nothing really to add here: CadB and no one else has not yet commented (or I assume read) my last two chapters, so no comments.

Welp, so long Lovies!


	13. Coming Home

A tall and lanky man was walking slowly behind a round lady who owned the apartment complex they were walking through. "It's so sweet to see adults coming back to their childhood homes," she gushed, reaching up and pinching his cheek.

He did not look thrilled to have his cheek pinched, but didn't remove her hand: instead he bent down slightly so she wasn't stretching as much. "It isn't like I'm going to be living here again," he mumbled, "just... seeing it one last time."

"That is adorable." Finally they reached the man's childhood home on the top floor. The land lady reached up and knocked politely. After a few seconds, the front door opened to reveal a short-ish man with a stout frame and black hair. He blinked owlishly at them. "Mr. Fukuro, this is Mr. Midoriya. He grew up here as a child. Would you allow him in?"

Fukuro nodded, smiling politely. "Of course. I've changed it quite a bit since I moved in I'm afraid though."

Izuku Midoriya gently smiled, ducking underneath the door frame. "That's quite alright. It's your place now and Mom would have been glad to know someone was using the place for their craft." He looked around. There were clay stains and half finished pottery everywhere you looked: several hand made vases held flowers and there was even a clay picture frame; inside was Fukuro with a blue haired and bright-eyed lady.

He chuckled. "I'm glad to know that. My girlfriend," Fukuro gestured to the frame, "always had her hands buried in some new clay. When she died... well... it helps me feel like she's still around."

Izuku hummed. "I'm sorry for you loss. I am quite familiar with the feeling."

Fukuro raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

"I lost my mother when I was about 15, and my father a little over three years ago. I have who I am today to reminde about Dad, but little to make me feel like Mom is still here. I had been half hoping to find something here."

Fukuro spread his arms around. "Please, take a look. I haven't changed the kitchen much, perhaps you'll find some old recipes?" Izuku bowed and turned away to do just that. Fukuro scratched the back of his head. "This might sound weird, but you sound familiar? Like I should know your name?"

"After my mother died, I ran away. If my name sounds familiar it is because you might've heard or watched the news reports on my 'missing person' case."

"Oh," Fukuro winced. "So... you've come back?"

"Mhm." Izuku was rooting around in the cupboards above the stove. "It should hit the news here in a day or two. Remember how I said my father died a few years ago?" Fukuro murmured that he did. "Well, he wasn't my actual father; closest thing to one I've ever had though. When I ran away, I ran away to live with him. I know that really isn't the smartest choice a person could make, but he was all I had right then... so with him gone (though I would love to stay with the ragtag adopted family I made myself,) I really can't. Dad made me promise to return."

Fukuro nodded solemnly. "I see. So what are you going to do now?"

Izuku pulled out a book of recipes, hurriedly shuffling through them. "Well, current plan is to start a company: tech, science, engineering, the like. I've been building up to this since I was 15: I wasn't wasting my time while I lived with Dad all those years. Once that's up and stable, I plan to get married."

"I see. Plan to raise a family?"

Izuku stilled. "I... kids?... I have never really thought about that. I am not necessarily opposed to the idea, but... I strangely feel like I wouldn't make a good father. I know Mei accepts me, but would my own children?" He gnawed his bottom lip in worry, rubbing the back of his neck.

Suddenly Fukuro's hand was on Izuku's shoulder. "Hey, man. It's cool. And if you and your Mei really are happy together..." he held up the framed picture of him and his girlfriend, a sad smile on his face, "well, you'll never know what you might miss out on." His smile faded and he drew his gaze away from Izuku to stare down at his lost lover. "Hana died in a villain attack. The heroes present did nothing to help her, choosing instead to try and subdue the criminal responsible. By the time medics arrived, it was too late. Makes you really think if Stain and that group was really justified in what they did."

Izuku hummed. To avoid eye contact, he went back to rifling through the recipe book. "I always connected with their message," he muttered. Fukuro looked up. "When I was young I worshipped heroes; then one day I met my idol: I asked him if I could become a hero, because I'm quirkless and everyone had always belittled me for it, even once going so far as to kill myself. He said no. It's far too dangerous of a job for someone without a quirk to do, apparently. He said that, even though earlier that same day, my friend got caught in a villain's trap, and that hero did nothing until I rushed out in adrenaline and risked my own neck. After that point, I started seeing their grittier side."

Izuku and Fukuro shared a solemn nod. It wasn't often they found such similarities in another person. Izuku turned back to the recipe book and gave a triumphant "aha!"

"What did you find?"

He held up the book, smiling widely. "Her chicken katsudon recipie! My 'brother'," he threw up quotation marks with his fingers, "has been trying to mimic how she made it, but I'm terrible with food and a kitchen and neither of us had her special recipe!"

Fukuro beamed. "That's awesome! It really must be something special."

"Oh you have no idea." Izuku clutched the book to his chest and they shared a short laugh. His laugh petered out though. "I really should be going however. I've infringed on your hospitality long enough."

Fukuro shrugged. "Not at all, but if that's how you feel. You can always come by again."

Izuku and he bowed to each other. "Thank you, truly." Izuku suddenly smirked childishly. "And hey, if you have a social media account of any kind, you could post how you met me. Maybe you'll get some short lasting fame for it."

Fukuro laughed. "As yes, achieve my goal of ten seconds of internet fame."

The two laughed. Izuku waved and headed for the door. It felt good to have a friend so soon after coming home.

He opened the recipe book again as he walked down the stairs. He'd need to copy this and send it to Touya.

A/N

So a short feels good chapter. That's always nice. I got caught up with what I could find of season 4 of MHA and it really got me pumped to write more of this (even though the Xover isn't wanting to write darn it.) I'm hoping next chapter will be either the Xover or a chapter of scenes of Dabi and Mika, my hand made OTP.

Also, according to Google, Fukuro means owl, which I thought would have been funny to name the character I said stares owlishly.

Now, an apology. I said for the last few chapters that it felt like only CadB was reading the oneshots. Well as Zombie3002 and OnlineOverlord15 pointed out, this isnt true and I feel mega bad about complaining now. So I am sorry. I will try not to complain unnecessarily.

Now, CadB, I do try to keep Izu and Kats friendly. They are still quite strained in their relationship, but they can normally work around that to act like normal people. However, say the right things and touch the right nerves, and they'll suddenly become ticking time bombs.

Well, that's about all! So long Lovies!


	14. Xover 4

It wasn't long after the examination that the other students slowly began filtering in. They milled about, stretching and talking with each other, until everyone one was present: some began lightly training to waste time until they were given jobs to do and areas to focus on. With nothing major to do until the last of the teachers finished, the girls all clustered together to chat and get to know each other.

Homura was rubbing and stretching her neck with one hand while lifting weights in her other hand. "That Vlad guy likes to go hard! He refused to let us use our quirks, so I'm glad I've done so much combat training." Kimiko, Meghumi, Kyo, Molly, and Hotaru nodded and muttered along the same lines.

Uraraka was stretching her arms. "I have to say I was surprised by Katsuki. I wasn't expecting him to be so calm, let alone take time to help us improve."

"What makes you say that?" Kimiko's voice was a little muffled, given that she was doing push ups. "I know your Bakugo is a little rough, but has he never shown anything like that?"

"Well... it's not like he's a bad guy or anything: he's come up with a few plans and strategies that are very clever and that use others as focal points, but for the most part..." there was a loud *BOOM* from above them, "not very often."

The girls started snickering. "Yeah, I've heard of Dad's destructive temper when he was my age."

"It's nice to see he mellows out with age!" Mina said, voice strained as she stretched. "How'd that come about anyway?"

Homura, knowing the most about this subject, explained. "Well, if I remember correctly, sometime around the first year you," she pointed at Uraraka, "became a sort of unofficial class therapist. Due to the... uh... the unique circumstances, Dad went for 'therapy' quite often. Then more things unfolded so that you and Mr. Aizawa agreed that he should be sent to an actual therapist; and it all kinda went on from there." Homura looked uncomfortable, like she was verging on a subject she was not supposed to.

"Oooh!" Mina started bouncing excitedly. "Does that mean she spent a lot of time with the Bakusquad? Was Uraraka a member???"

"Oh yeah. Super close."

Hotaru looked excited. "Aww, I never knew that about your parents!"

You could have heard a penny drop.

Homura flushed bright red. "Dude! I was explicitly told not to tell!" Hotaru gasped and slapped her hands over her mouth, mumbling apologies through her hands, but the damage was done. Uraraka was floating away. The poor girl was redder than a tomato, muttering so quickly she couldn't be understood; trying to explain that no, she didn't like Bakugo, she liked another boy, and that was final, but she was trying to put off romance and useless crushes until after highschool, so please don't tease her and-

"Dude I'm sorry! I wasn't trying to imply that you liked him!" Homura was so embarrassed.

Katsuki yelled, "What is going on over there," across the room.

Homura, not missing a beat, screamed, "GIRL STUFF" over her shoulder before turning back to the now floating away Uraraka. "Please come down, I am so sorry."

Eventually Uraraka calmed down enough to take her hands off her her face and return to earth. She was still quite red. "I'm sorry about that... you saying that just kinda... caught me off guard I guess."

Hotaru looked as ashamed as Homura, her curly pink hair drooping sadly. "It's my fault. I didn't think before speaking again."

Kimiko and Meg watched in amusement. "You... you do realize that it would come out any way? Mrs. Ochako is coming over tommorow: she was supposed to be here today. Last I checked, for most of us, our parents are visiting tommorow and in the second tournament at least." Meghumi shrugged and pointed to Shoto. "I mean, my dad is here, and Mom is coming."

Molly nodded, smiling wide. "Giovanni, the boys, Sylvie, and Percy are coming to cheer me on as well. All the way from the States!"

The rest all piped in with their visiting friends and family: Mina gushed about showing off her gal pals; Kimiko simply said her dad couldn't make it but her mom was coming; Kyo said the opposite; Kendo, Shiozaki, and Hotaro had both parents and a couple friends visiting; and Uraraka was just glad that the seat tickets were cheap enough that both of her parents could watch in person.

Then the conversation moved on to the actual tournament itself. The girls tried to theorize what they were to expect, but were cut off by Aizawa, Toshinori, Tsukasa, and the last of the students entering. The two head teachers summoned their kids.

Aizawa almost looked awake; and he looked almost in a good mood. "Vlad, you do with your kids what you will. The rest of you," they all scurried into place, "will be trying something different than usual. Problem child: I want you to start lifting weights with your quirk activated; Bakugo: I want to see how much you can carry while launching yourself (carefully, don't kill anyone,) over a barrier. Uraraka, Mina, Todoroki, Kaminari: I'll be practicing combat training with you; Iida: I want you pushing how quickly and how accurately you can attack with your legs. Mineta: I don't care; and Kirishima, I've been told you learned a new ability? I want you practicing that until it's second nature to you. As for you two, Mirio and Tamaki, you do what you think is the best course of action for you. After a while move on to other training techniques; whatever you think needs work."

As those ten rushed for their assigned beginning training, Tsukasa moved onto his kids. He seemed to have a similar thought pattern to Aizawa. "Alright! We're going at it today! Hiroki, Fumio, and Akio: Dr. Izuku will tell you what you need. Kimiko: I want you over there, working out, on fire until you're seconds away from burning: I want to see a new record for you of hotter for longer; Meghumi, Shoto, Kota: keep her from burning the building down and turning us into boiled eggs. Homura: you're going to push how far you can propel yourself back and forth before the dizziness sets in, no pills; Taiki: improve your reaction time with your quirk. Hotaru: same as Homura, work however you can until the dizziness stops you or your legs cramp; Gou, Kyo, Nobu: I want Gou to run while carrying weights with Nobu using his quirk (make sure you're targeting only Gou) and Kyo will be adding to Gou's load to carry. Kenta: I want you on a treadmill, working with your staff: Molly, Ryunosuke, Sota, Kotaro: combat training."

After being separated from the group, Hiroki turned to his father with wide eyes that he knew had no effect. "Please say we're not doing more physical training."

Izuku snorted and ruffled his son's hair. "I should, for your whining, but I'm nice. Ya have to get some kind of training in, but do as you like."

"Does making an elevated platform to watch and analyze the other contestants count as training?" Fumio's voice was hopeful, even though he couldn't feel the physical strain of his brother.

"Yeah that works."

The three boys whooped and ran to the nearest wall: as if the materials appeared out of thin air (technically, the parts and platform expanded from tiny cubes,) they were quickly assembling and raising an over-glorified shelf. Then they sat up there, Hiro and Akio scribbling in notebooks and Fumio keeping internal notes, talking and lobbing ideas back and forth between each other.

The boys received some strange looks, but the training and work continued on nonetheless. Soon the room was filled with explosions, the sound of energy crackling back and forth, grunts, the crackle of fire, the hiss of cold air, and the heavy footfalls of steel-toed boots. Bakugo was laden down with heavy bags of rice while he chucked himself back and forth over a six-foot wall; Deku was pumping iron with a vengeance, his bar bowing underneath the weight a kid his size and age normally wouldn't be able to bench-press.

The middle of the room was mostly reserved as space for the combat training kids. Most of the teachers were gathered here, giving tips and correcting students: Dr. Izuku was also spending much of his time there, being one of the most experienced with pure hand-to-hand combat, but he ducked out to give suggestions to other kids for their performances. Izuku had fixed Deku's position and method of pumping, had suggested to Bakugo a safer way to land without hurting himself or potential civilians he could be carrying, corrected Iida's kick style, checked on his three boys to see their analyzation progress, and spent a lot of time working with Kirishima.

Homura and Hotaru were launching themselves back and forth, Homura with careful and small explosions and Hotaru with her powerful legs, both fighting off nausea. Gou, Nobu, and Kyo were on the other side of the room, running back and forth in laps.

Kimiko was in a corner, covered head to toe in 8cm long bright blue flames, her hands and/or feet shifting to heavy weights for her to pump as she worked out with a passion that normally scared off other kids. Her temperature was so high (and increasing) that it took Shoto, Meghumi, and Kota combined to keep the room temperature at a reasonable level. Shoto and his daughter were throwing punches back and forth, keeping his left side facing Kimiko. Kota just stood there, cheering them on.

It took about an hour before anything of note occurred.

Homura and Hotaru had been teasing back and forth about if the other was close to puking, and both denying it; then, at the same time, they both rushed to the girls bathroom, where they could be heard violently expelling their breakfast. They came out a few minutes later, slightly pale but grinning. Both girls were eating a chalky stick of anti-nausea medicine.

"Hey Fumio," Homura called across the room. "How long was that?"

"Around 50-some minutes."

The two pumped their fists and high-fived, congratulating each other on their work. Tsukasa nodded approvingly, dismissing them to train as they pleased now. Homura grinned widely. Calling across the room again, she made her brother to come down from his perch so they could work on his punching: he really didn't want to leave, but Homura insisted. Akio sighed, packed up his stuff, and clambered down the ladder sadly. Soon Homura was holding a punching bag while Akio attacked with a sub-par display.

At this time the others also began to stop their training in turn for other exercises. Bakugo stretched to work out the new cramps in his body; Deku hopped on a treadmill; the combat kids broke up to take their turns on generic exercise; Mirio and Tamaki began a tussle; and a couple just fell onto the floor to relax for a few minutes.

It was after the hour mark that Kimiko finally shut off her quirk. The temperature in the room immediately dropped several degrees. She was left panting, her skin a pinkish-red, and smiling from ear-to-ear. Kota filled her a glass of water: she began taking delicate sips, not wanting to drink too much to quickly lest she fall to Homura's and Hotaru's fate and lose her breakfast.

Mirio and Tamaki had a ring around them at this point: teens chanting "fight, fight, fight" and adults murmuring notes and dropping hints and observations to whichever teens were nearby them. After several minutes, Mirio emerged the victor by knocking Tamaki out of the ring. The boy blushed a delicate pink, pulling his hoodie down over his face.

"Dude that was amazing!" Tamaki turned around, still hiding underneath his hood. Homura, holding Akio's punching bag in place, was beaming down at him. "I've known several big time villains who didn't last even two minutes against Mirio in full swing, but that must have close to fifteen!"

Tamaki blushed even harder as he turned back around. "Ohhhh... I suppose... there's a lot of contributing factors..."

"Aww, don't say that!" Mirio this time, breaking through the ring and approaching them. "Homura is right, you were amazing!"

Both Mirio and Homura looked like they were about to continue praising Tamaki, but they were stopped by a loud "oi!" They looked over. Bakugo was in the ring; and he looked ready for that fight. Homura let go of the bag just as Akio threw another punch: the bag bounced off of her and she didn't even notice.

"Perfect," she growled, grinning predatorily again.

The circle of students backed up slightly, wary of the danger of explosions and the two teens. Katsuki raised an eyebrow. "So you two are doing this now? Fine. You're not using your quirks."

Homura opened her mouth to argue, but Tsukasa stepped in. "Agreed. You two could bring down this entire building and everyone in it if you both fought with your quirks. This will be a quirkless battle."

Bakugo snorted at the term "quirkless" and cut a viscous look to Deku. Dr. Izuku, on the other side of the room, glared in turn at Bakugo. Homura sighed and rolled her shoulders. As she tapped a little pad on her wrist that the kids hadn't seen before, a glove missing the three inner fingers materialized around her hand. She cracked her neck. Both her and Bakugo lowered into fighting stances as Tsukasa continued.

"No dirty play: that means biting, scratching eyes, or kicking between the legs and like things. First one pinned to the ground wins."

Aizawa, who had his eyes wide open and trained on Bakugo, was the one to give the command to start.

Bakugo and Homura leapt at each other. She narrowly avoided his punch to the gut and in turn kicked him in the ribs. He tumbled backwards but was back on his feet before she could claim a quick victory. Letting her move first this time, he dodged her grapple and grappled her in a suplex. Regaining her senses in a split second, Homura flipped over, carrying Bakugo with her, and body slammed him.

The ring of students backed up even further. Kimiko stood to her feet and joined the ring.

Bakugo slammed his elbow into the side of Homura's neck, making her lose her grip and back up: her massaging her neck gave them both a chance to regain themselves and take a moment to breathe.

With a growl, they resumed. Homura fainted pulling back to punch Katsuki straight in the head and dropped down to kick his legs out from under him. He caught on and leapt over. However, he didn't anticipate her leaping forward and upward to regain her feet. She grabbed his by the shoulder and arm, spun him once, twice, and threw him out up and out of the ring.

The circle gasped and rushed out of the way.

Homura, taking the opening, rushed forward while he tried to regain his breath and footing, and grappled him. He fought, thrashed, and kicked, but she pulled his hands behind his back and dug her knee into his spine.

Silence fell as he grew still in defeat. Homura looked up to her homeroom teacher to call her victory. He nodded approvingly and she clambered off of him. Breathing heavily, she crouched down and offered Bakugo her hand to help him up. "You fight really good."

He glared at the hand, then begrudgingly took it. "Same." He didn't seem too happy about the fact.

Homura beamed. She turned to her father and yelled "Oi Pop! Does this mean I've finally beaten you?"

"Not at all half-pint," Katsuki yelled back, completely undeterred by Bakugo's indignant shout of "HE AND I AREN'T THE SAME!" Homura only laughed.

The next few fighters got into the ring, ready to test out their strength on their fellows and try some new moves. Homura went back to training Akio and his punches. All of the student training battles were fought quirkless, just like the first two. Deku fought Kimiko and got his hide handed to him: Mina and Kaminari went off script and had a dance off: Ojiro and Kenta were trading blows with their staves.

At some point, about two hours into training, one of the kids asked if Katsuki and Izuku could fight.

"No!" They denied in unison. Izuku shook his head frantically. "We're under strict promises that we wouldn't." A dark and vacant look entered his eyes. "Very strict..." his voice trailed off.

"Well maybe one of you could fight Mr. Todoroki?"

The two looked to a now very alarmed looking Shoto. Izuku shrugged, suddenly beaming. "Yeah I'm cool with that!"

"I'm not!" Shoto denied with a very wild deer-in-the-healights look.

"Awww c'mon, why not?"

"You sir, are a masochist, and I am not fighting you."

This statement completely floored Izuku. He stood there blinking for several seconds as Kastuki burst out laughing. "H-h-how? How am I a masochist?"

"You're a weirdo who enjoys pain."

"I do not! Just cause I don't really feel it doesn't mean I enjoy it!"

"I once saw you shrug off a broken arm, WITH THE BONE STICKING THROUGH, MIND YOU, and reset and wrap it like it was no big deal!" (His televised fight against All Might, as you may recall.)

"You're taking that out of context, and it STILL doesn't prove that I am a masochist!"

The two were nose to nose now. As they continued to loudly argue over whether or not Dr. Izuku was a masochist, Aizawa leaned over to Katsuki and murmured, "should we break this up?"

"Nah," he was thoroughly enjoying this. "Let 'em go for a while longer. It's not going to do any harm."

Aizawa seriously wanted to debate this, as at this point Izuku and Shoto were nose to nose and looked seconds away from throwing down with their bare fists. Young Deku was also over in the corner, frantically denying that he was a masochist either.

However, they weren't given the chance or the choice to break up the two warring men.

The were a sudden and loud 'BOOM' and a brilliant flash of light. Homura went flying through the air, crashing into Izuku and Shoto. As soon as he saw that his daughter was fine, Katsuki's head snapped to the side, looking for his son, for only a Bakugo could make such explosions.

Akio was huddled in a corner. He was trembling like a leaf in the wind, his red-brown eyes wide and frightened, gripping his hair until he almost started pulling it out.

His gloves weren't on his hands. The punching bag he and Homura had been training on had dissapeared.

Katsuki rushed over to his son. Homura clambered to her feet and followed suit, the adults guiding the shocked teens away from the frightened boy. He knelt down beside his son. With more gentleness than the host teens had ever seen from Bakugo, he wrapped an arm around Akio and began slowly detaching his locked hands out of his hair.

Katsuki was murmuring quietly to Akio, repeating that everything was alright, and that no one was harmed. Akio wasn't really listening: he was shaking his head violently, mumbling insanely that it could have been somebody and not just a punching bag. The smell of burnt hair began filling the room as his quirk tried to set his hair on fire, while all it really managed to do was cause Akio a nose bleed. Katsuki finally got Akio's hands out of his hair.

Pulling his son to his feet, Katsuki began guiding a still shivering Akio to the front door. They dissapeared through for a couple minutes. Homura, looking conflicted, snapped at all the onlookers with a bitter, "Oi! He's not an animal in a zoo! Get back to work!"

Katsuki walked back through a minute later. "Oi, anyone need to go back to the dorms a little early? Akio's goin and I don't want him goin alone shaken up like that."

Izuku raised his hand. "I'll go. There's not much more I wanna do here."

Molly followed suit. She'd injured her ankle in a fighting match of her own, and really just wanted to lie down for a bit. A couple of the more worn down students also agreed, ready for some lunch.

The rest stayed behind, training for at least another hour.

Slowly they all trickled out to their dorm rooms. Kimiko, Homura, Deku, Iida, Kirishima, Bakugo, Hiroki, Mirio, and the teachers were the last to leave: everyone was tired and most were smiling. Homura carried Hiroki piggyback the whole walk, chatting amiably. The four host kids came to realize that though Homura had the over-the-top energy of her father, she was just as kind and sweet as her mother, and really quite funny too.

Once they reached the dorm "city" everyone split to go take a well deserved nap, promising to hang out again later after dinner. Deku closed his curtains and collapsed on his bed, absolutley exhausted.

But he couldn't fall asleep. He still felt uneasy about his older counterpart, Dr. Izuku. Sure, there was nothing noticeably wrong with him: he was quite fun, energetic, and sharply brilliant and clever with many skills. But he seemed just slightly too comfortable and too skilled with combat to be just a scientist (even a scientist that basically ruled world-wide technology and who had been on his own for six years.) The wild look in his eye had intensified everytime he was in training with one of the kids.

And then there was Shoto's remark that Izuku wasn't fazed by his own broken bones, even if the bone was sticking out of the flesh. Deku knew better than anyone that he had a high pain tolerance; but he still felt pain; and he still felt horror (to a degree) over his own injuries. He couldn't imagine casually resetting an exposed bone and continuing with life as though nothing had happened. And how did Dr. Izuku get in that situation where he had been injured like that anyway?

Plus the idea of Stain and his Apprentice in that world still unnerved him. He hadn't yet plucked up the courage to investigate and analyze any videos and documentaries about it online, worried seeing the violence would upset him too much.

Deku snorted. He rolled onto his side, grabbed his phone and headphones, and turned on his music app. If he couldn't sleep, then he could at least relax.

A/N

Well this got out faster than I anticipated. When I made the last chapter, I was almost done with this but had hit another small roadblock. However, almost immediately after finishing last chapter, I got this up and going. Not really a lot in this chapter of the Xover I realize: pretty much just some three hour filler fluff. But hey, that's cool too. My plan is to have another fluff chapter of them hanging out after dinner (which should be a lot shorter) and then hop right on into the tournament: not sure if I'll have all the tournament in one chapter or two: that is a lot of combat.

Comments! I was not expecting to get these so soon, lemme tell you. CadB, BP, and a guest-- man you three just up and poured the love. Thanks yall.

Well, next chapter in the oneshots will be hopefully a DabiMika; expect a chapter in Ghost who knows when; and, maybe when I've finished To Catch a Sleeping Ghost, I'll start a Vil!Deku/Nomu!Deku that has been bouncing about in my brain? Or maybe my writer's block for Redeemed will be cured and I can finally write up its last few chapters (I feel bad that it's left of a cliffie, but at least it isn't stressing me atm.)

Well that's all I got! So long Lovies


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